


The Ballad of the Starlight Brigade

by Baykit



Category: Starlight Brigade - TWRP ft. Dan Avidan (Music Video)
Genre: Outer Space, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2020-10-10 16:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 54
Words: 44,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20531297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baykit/pseuds/Baykit
Summary: The music video is too short so I'm going off the rails with this. I'm writing this for fun so yes, the editing is minimal.We saw the beginning and the ending of the Starlight Brigade but here's everything that I think happened in between.





	1. Blastoff

The stars were alive. That’s what his father always told him. He also told him that their people were loved by the stars and if he really listened, he could hear the stars talking to him.

But he also remembered the night the stars were stolen. He remembered that horrible black pyramid appearing in the sky. He remembered the stars all racing towards it, their flaming tails streaking behind them. Sometimes, when the nights seemed too dark to bear, he wondered if the stars had been forced to go to the pyramid or if they had gone willingly. But no, his people were loved by the stars. He couldn’t let himself believe that the stars had left him behind.

The sky was still dark as ever as Strive sat outside on the roof of the home he shared with his father. There weren’t many lights on in the surrounding homes either. Fewer and fewer of his people bothered with artificial light these days, perhaps it reminded them too much of what they had lost. He peeked underneath his cape just to see his heart crystal’s steady glow. He didn’t really need to look to see it was still glowing, he could feel it’s warmth but he still enjoyed the seeing the light it gave off. So many of his neighbor’s heart crystal’s had grown dim that he feared that someday he would look down to see he wasn’t giving off any light at all.

He heard soft footsteps behind him. He wondered when his father had realized he was outside and if he had waited at all to give him some time alone. Either way he knew his father’s next words would be to call him back inside so he reached his hand towards the sky one last time, hoping beyond hope that somewhere beyond his sight there were still stars that might take a moment to speak to him.

And then it streaked past his field of vision. That familiar flaming tail arcing across the sky, but it wasn’t getting dimmer. It was getting brighter.

Strive scrambled down the front of the house knowing that his father would be forced to take the stairs. He raced out in front of his house just in time to see the explosion of light that marked the place the star had crashed.

“Strive!” his father screamed.

Slowly, hesitantly, Strive turned around. His father was standing in front of their house, his form haloed by the glow spilling out from inside their home. He couldn’t see his eyes well with shadows falling over his face but he could feel the fear and desperation emanating from him. His father called him his “little star”. He knew that he wanted him to turn back. To stay home. To stay safe. He knew what losing him would do to his father. But staying meant it would only be a matter of time before he lost his glow. And that felt like a fate worse than death.

“Strive!” his father called out again as he raced away from his home and towards the fading light.

Strive scrambled over the crest of the hill and let out a soft gasp at the sight before him. Judging by the plume of smoke billowing off of it, this had to be what he was looking for. But, he wasn’t sure what it was. He had expected a star to look…alive.

Strive half slid down the hill towards the lake where the star had landed and cautiously stepped across a few stones to get closer. Up close the star looked like it was made out of black crystal with a single point on one end but several shafts sticking out of the other. It reminded him a bit of his father’s hair when it built up a bit too much of a static charge. But still, there was no flicker. No light. The star couldn’t be dead, could it? Strive got as close as he could to the star. Close enough to see his reflection in the crystal. Feeling like he was about to cry, he reached out to touch the surface of the crystal. He never expected it to reach back.

Strive stumbled forward into the darkness. He looked around frantically only to realize the space around him was rapidly changing. Soon there was a great window in front of him, a control panel and two small pillars that were arms-length apart. This wasn’t a star. Somehow, someway, this was a star ship. The air suddenly felt thick and tense, like the ship was waiting for something to happen. And slowly Strive realized, he could leave. He could go and see if he was right, if there were still stars out there. He remembered his father, waiting for him to come home, telling him to be safe. But he couldn’t turn back now.

As if responding to his resolve his heart crystal’s glow increased, brighter than ever. And, as if in response, the control panel lit up as well. Strive looked over to see that the two pillars had round, palm sized crystals on them. He took a deep breath, and then placed both of his palms on the crystals.

And then there was light! The ship was surrounded in a cascade of different colored lights as a pair of wings burst from the side of ship as it rocketed forward. Strive couldn’t help but let out a whoop of excitement as a broad grin stretched across his face. He was shooting forward and upward, far away from everything he ever knew. He was going to find his stars and nothing was going to stop him now.


	2. A New Signal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Havve picks up an impossible signal

“Doc-tor, Doc-tor.”

Doctor Sung turned to see his fellow brigade member, Havve Hogan behind him. Sung held back a sigh of exasperation, it had been over a month since the brigade had been given a mission and cabin fever had long since set in. He knew that the Brigade’s lack of victories against the Shards had made command reluctant to send them out again but keeping them here wasn’t doing any good either. But none of this was Havve’s fault. There was no point in taking it out on him, best to just see what he wanted.

“Havve, is something the matter? I haven’t seen you leave your observation station in ages,” Sung remarked, plastering a large grin on his face.

“Doc-tor, there’s a new one,” Havve said in his usual matter-of-fact tone.

“A new what?”

“A new signal. A new ship.”

“Havve, there are new ships all the time. Command probably just made a new model and forgot to update you.”

“No. It’s like ours.”

This remark made Sung pause. A new morph ship? It couldn’t be possible. He, Havve, and the rest of the brigade had been given their ships after Command had led a risky operation to steal them from the Shards and Command had lost many good men in that operation. Sung was positive that Command wouldn’t dare to risk such an operation again, especially not without telling the Brigade. So where had this new signal come from?

“I’m sure it’s just a bug in the system Havve, but if you want me to check it out I’d be happy for an excuse to take my ship out for a spin,” Sung replied, doing his best to keep his tone care-free.

“No.”

“No?”

“It came from the Dark Zone. It came from the graveyard,” Havve informed him.

Sung’s blood ran cold. The Dark Zone was the area of space where the Shards had originally attacked. Where they had stolen all of the stars from. And the graveyard, the grave yard was the remains of Command’s first attempt to fight back. An attempt that had gone… poorly. And it was still crawling with Shards.

“Well…if it is a possible new team member I suppose we should pull out all the stops, right? Send a message out to the rest of the brigade members. Let’s go meet this fellow.”

“Yes,” Havve agreed as he turned and headed back towards the observation station.

Sung paused only a moment more before heading towards the hanger. He still couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of another morph ship pilot being out there but there was no time to lose. Flying through the graveyard alone, in a morph ship or not, was a death sentence. If the brigade didn’t hurry they would lose their new teammate before they even met them.


	3. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive meets the Starlight Brigade

Strive’s initial excitement about flying was fading. It seemed that no matter how far he flew he was still surrounded by darkness, the only light coming from his ship. And what his light illuminated only made him more anxious. At first he thought they were just asteroids, drifting in space but then he noticed the jagged edges of twisted metal protruding from half melted hulls. The asteroids that surrounded him were really the remains of ships like his own! He was just starting to wonder if he should turn back when his controls lit up and projected a holographic screen in front of him. On the screen was an insignia he had never seen before, a shield with a large star on front of it. Then the insignia was replaced by the face of a man, at least Strive assumed it was a man. His face was mostly covered by a black visor over his eyes and a pale orange helmet that was so tall it resembled the crest of an exotic bird. Though he could see a mustache peeking out from underneath his nose.

“Hey kid,” the face said, “on your left.”

Strive his head to the left and saw that the man out his window that the man was really right next to him! In another ship! Suddenly four more screens were projected around his head and four more faces appeared. One resembled a giant feline covered in light blue fur and surrounded by a glorious mane of darker blue fur. Another appeared humanoid, but their face was completely covered in a red and yellow helmet with what appeared to breathing tubes protruding from the mouth area. The third wore a black helmet but this one only covered his mouth and nose, his sharp eyes visible behind a yellow visor. And the fourth…. The fourth appeared to be a great machine with six appendages attached to his torso.

“I don’t believe it. Haave was right, another morph ship and a pilot to boot,” The blue one said with a wide grin stretching across his face.

“My sensors never lie,” said the machine. Strive guessed this must be Haave.

“A little on the small side but I bet its fast. You got a name kid?” The man with the mustache said.

Strive really wasn’t sure if he should take offense to the small comment but he was so happy to no longer be alone in this place he decided he didn’t care.

“It’s Strive. I…I can’t believe it. I can’t believe you’re all here. I was starting to think I was alone,” Strive said, almost sobbing though his smile.

“Strive, that’s a good name. I’m Doctor Sung, the fuzzy one is Commander Meouch, the one in the helmet is Lord Phobos, the quiet one is Space Ninja Brian and our metal friend is Haave Hogan. It’s nice to meet you kid,” Doctor Sung said, giving Strive a little salute.

Strive hesitated for a moment. He wanted to salute back but his ship seemed to be very sensitive to anything he did with his hands. He settled for smiling back at all of them instead.

“It’s nice to meet all of you too,” Strive said.

“Well now that introductions are out of the way we need you to come with us kid,” Lord Phobos said, “Not to rush you or anything but it isn’t safe out here.”

“Not safe?” Strive said.

“Yes,” Lord Phobos replied, “This place is crawling with…”

“SHARDS!!” Commander Meouch yelled into his receiver.

Strive looked up just in time to see two ships made out of shiny black crystals and two beams of sickly green light streaking towards them.


	4. The First Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive gets a first look a the Shards. 
> 
> I've never written a space battle before, please be gentle

Strive quickly yanked his hands to the right and felt his ship lurch in response. He felt the floor beneath his feet warm as the heat of the beam passed below him.

“Whoo! I told you his ship must be fast! Nice dodge kid, but leave the rest to us. Commander, cover him! Your ship is the largest,” Doctor Sung ordered.

“I’ve got him, just make this fast,” Commander Meouch responded.

As Commander Meouch positioned his ship in front of Strive’s he realized that it was the largest of the five ships, with broad wings and a sleek hull that almost looked the skull of an animal.

“Haave, get ready! Phobos, Brian and I will position for you! Be ready to fire!” Doctor Sung said as he rocketed towards the Shards.

As Haave positioned his ship Strive got a better look at it. It was almost as large as commander Meouch’s, but boxier and with shorter wings. Strive realized, with frustration, that he couldn’t see much of the battle with Commander Meouch’s ship directly in front of him. But he figured, it couldn’t hurt to at least get a peek. He moved his ship up until he could just see over the exhaust pipes in the back of Commander Meouch’s ship. Doctor Sung’s ship was sleek and narrow, with the wings facing backwards towards the exhaust pipe. Space Ninja Brian’s ship was also on the smaller side with wings that resembled a bird, but the back half was segmented like an insects. Lord Phobos’s ship was smaller with the wings attached to the very bottom of the ship. And all three of them were preforming a rather deadly dance around the two shard ships. They were dipping in and around them, staying just close enough to keep the ships interested in them and not the three ships to the side but staying just far enough away that they could keep dodging the almost continuous barrage of green beams. But as he watched Strive realized they were doing one more thing, they were herding the two ships closer together.

Just then a stray beam hit the edge of one of Commander Meouch’s wings and it immediately began to melt and steam as his ship lurched slightly. With a sudden rush of fear and embarrassment at his own recklessness, Strive lowered his ship back into the full cover of Commander Meouch’s ship.

“Now Haave, now!” Doctor Sung commanded over the comms.

Strive watched as two glowing blue rockets shot from Haave’s ship. He could no longer see the battle but Stive felt the vibrations from the shockwave as the rockets made contact.

“Alright people let’s move! Follow us kid!” Doctor Sung yelled over the comms.

As Strive propelled his ship forward he got a brief glimpse of Shards. Both had the still glowing blue rockets deeply embedded in their hulls with glowing green cracks spreading from the impact zones. And as he passed by both Shards turned, slowly, in his direction. Strive urged his ship on as fast as he could go while still staying close to the Starlight Brigade.


	5. Command

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive sees his new home

The brigade flew on in silence for a while, each one processing the battle in their own way. Strive’s own thoughts were interrupted by a whisper. His head snapped up, looking for the source, but the comms were quiet. Then he caught sight of them out of the corner of his eye, tiny pin pricks of light in the distance. He felt his ears raise in anticipation. Could it really be? As the got closer the lights only multiplied and the whispers grew louder until Strive felt surrounded by as cascade of sound and warmth. Excited greetings and feelings of welcome engulfed Strive as all of the stars rushed to say hello in a language so old that it resonated in Strives very bones.

“First time kid?” Doctor Sung’s voice shook Strive out of his almost trance-like state.

Strive felt the color rise in his face as he realized that Doctor Sung must have seen his expression through the window of his ship.

“No, not the first time. But I haven’t seen them since I was very small. I’d forgotten how loud they are,” Strive responded.

“Loud?” Commander Meouch said as he joined the conversation.

“Yes, can’t you hear them saying hello? I guess they’re a little excited. They haven’t seen someone like me in a long time,” Strive said.

Doctor Sung and the rest of the Starlight Brigade exchanged looks over the comms.

“Ah, no. We can’t hear anything like that kid. We’ll just take your word for it,” Lord Phobos finally replied.

Strive felt a wave of confusion wash over him. Was it somehow strange that he could hear the star’s voices?

“Command. De-ad ahead,” Haave’s voice cut through the tailspin of Strive’s thoughts.

“Take a look kid. Home sweet home,” Doctor Sung said.

Strive looked up and held back a gasp of amazement. In the space in front of him was the largest starship he had ever seen, with hundreds of windows lining the sides. It looked the residents of his entire planet could live inside with room to spare. At some secret signal, from one of the brigade members he guessed, a large hanger door opened and the brigade flew inside. As Strive landed his ship and withdrew his hands from the controls he wondered briefly how he was supposed to get out of his ship. But then a door he hadn’t noticed before, or perhaps hadn’t been there before, slid open and he stepped outside. The other brigade members exited their ships and gathered around him. Lord Phobos stepped in the closest and put his own hand on top of his head and waved it out in a straight line above Strive’s own head.

“Look guys! I’m not the shortest anymore,” he said with a certain level of glee.

The rest of the brigade burst out laughing and Strive couldn’t help but join in. But then Doctor Sung’s attention was drawn towards someone coming from one of the entrances.

“Hey kid I’m about to introduce you to someone important. Let’s leave out anything about talking stars for the time being okay?” he whispered.

Before Strive could agree he before an imposing looking woman with a helmet and visor that covered her head and eyes.

“Commander Greyson. We’d like you to meet Strive, the pilot of the new morph ship that Haave picked up on,” Doctor Sung said, giving the woman a salute.

“I see,” Commander Greyson said, “You’ve caused quite the stir kid. We’re all wondering, how did you manage to get your hands on one of these ships? It must have been quite the battle.”

“Battle? N..No it just crashed. N..not far from my house,” Strive stammered.

“Crashed? Hmmm. Tell me kid. Have you ever piloted a ship before?” She demanded.

“No. I haven’t.” Strive answered.  
With one swift movement Commander Greyson straightened and began briskly walking away.

“Hang on. I’ve got this,” Commander Meouch said and he started after her.

“Commander Greyson!” Commander Meouch yelled after her.

Commander Greyson stopped and slowly turned back.

“I know he’s not what you were hoping but there’s no need to be rude,” Commander Meouch chastised.

“Not what I was expecting?” Commander Greyson’s voice raised in pitch, “Do you think for a moment that I buy that story? A morph ship just crashing by his house? It’s impossible! Chances are he’s some kind of Shard spy and you all just welcomed him in! And even if he’s not, he’s got no experience. We can’t use him. We’d be better off just severing his bond to the morph ship and sending him packing.”

Commander Meouch stiffen at the suggestion.

“You don’t even know if that machine will work. You could kill him,” he said, his voice tight.

“And a morph ship in the hands of a competent pilot wouldn’t be worth it?” Commander Greyson asked calmly.

“Doctor Sung…” Commander Meouch started.

“You are the leader of that outfit. Not Doctor Sung,” Commander Greyson scolded.

“Fine. I see potential in him, we’ll prove it,” Commander Meouch said.

“You’d better. We may be the same rank but I’m not above going above your head for this,” Commander Greyson responded.

Strive’s heart was still beating loudly as Commander Meouch returned.

“Good news kid. You get to stay and show us your stuff,” he said with a clap on Strive’s back.

Strive let out the breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding.

“Oh that’s good. But, if you don’t mind me asking, where exactly is here?”


	6. An Explanation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive learns a few things

“Ah, yes. I’d forgotten you came from the Dark Zone. You don’t know about any of this,” Commander Meouch said.

“The Dark Zone?” Strive asked.

“We’ll get to all that. First let’s go somewhere a little more private,” Commander Meouch said as he placed his hand on Strives back and propelled him towards one of the exits.

Even as he was propelled along Strive couldn’t help but stare at his new surroundings. The hallways were pristine greys and whites and there seemed to be screens everywhere. And the people. There were so many people, most in the same grey and black uniforms as Commander Greyson. The only difference was the scarves they had around their necks that seemed to be the only spots of color on their uniforms. He also noticed that anyone with a white or yellow scarf stopped to salute the brigade. Or were they just saluting Commander Meouch? He couldn’t really tell, but Commander Meouch did seem to have a higher status then the rest of the brigade.

It had seemed like a long walk but Strive realized that the room they entered was probably one of the closest to the hanger where they had left their ships. It was a circular room with six doors along one half of the room. The other half was taken up by a large kitchen with a long island in the middle. In the center of the room was a large, circular table that was surrounded by cushioned seats.

“Home sweet home,” Lord Phobos proclaimed as he plopped down on one of the chairs and patted the seat next to him, “sit down kid.”

Strive slid into the seat next to him as most of the brigade members settled in as well. Only Commander Meouch remained standing.

“So, Strive, tell me what you already know. I like to avoid repeating myself,” Commander Meouch prompted.

“Oh, um, I know that years ago, I’m not sure exactly how long. It’s a bit hard to tell time on my planet without the stars. But years ago a black pyramid appeared and all of the surrounding stars were drawn into it. And then today, a ship crashed on my planet. I touched it and it transformed and I flew into that area with all the broken ships and met you. And then we were attacked by those crystal things… the Shards? And… oh and my ship is called a Morph ship. I think,” Strive said.

“That’s a good start,” Commander Meouch said slowly, “but let me add to that. It was exactly twelve years ago that the Shards attacked.”

Commander Meouch tapped the table in front of him and a panel in the center slid back to reveal a round crystal in the center. From the crystal a blue hologram was projected.

“I’m afraid we still don’t know why they did what they did. But we do know where they come from, a planet called NC-37. Before the attack we thought it was completely uninhabited,” Commander Meouch explained, “But it is clear that their intentions are not friendly. After they captured all the stars from the galaxy surrounding their planet, the area we now refer to as the Dark Zone, they proceeded to decimate the military forces of every inhabited planet that we know of. Everything seemed hopeless until scientists got their hands on a few pieces of the Shard ships and found they had transformative properties. They then launched a full scale operation, with the help of their neighboring planets, to get their hands on complete Shard ships. They managed to get their hands on five and put them in the hands of the best pilots they could find.”

“That’s us!” Lord Phobos exclaimed.

“Yes, and now we exist to investigate the Shards and hopefully, one day, undo the damage they’ve done,” Commander Meouch finished.  
“Wait, and you think I can help?” Strive said, his voice trembling.

“That’s the idea,” Commander Meouch said.

“You don’t have to answer right away,” Doctor Sung added, “it’s been a long day. Why don’t you sleep on it and we’ll show you around Command in the morning. Unless you have an immediate question now?”

“Just one,” Strive said slowly, “If the Shards decimated all of the military ships how did they miss this one?”

“Oh it didn’t used to be a military ship,” Lord Phobos said, “It used to be a luxury cruise liner.”


	7. A View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive picks his room

“So, which rooms are already taken?” Strive asked.

“Oh right,” Doctor Sung said with an embarrassed laugh, “well Lord Phobos and I are both in the one on the far left.”

“You’re bunked together? Is that a rule or something?” Strive asked.

“No, it’s just more convenient that way,” Doctor Sung answered.

Strive looked to Lord Phobos, hoping for more of an answer, but only got a shrug in response.

“Anyways, the Ninja Brian is next to us, then it’s Haave’s room and lastly is Commander Meouch. You can choose from the two on the right,” Doctor Sung finished.

Strive tentatively got up and walked to the first room next to Commander Meouch’s room. It was spacious with a thick carpet, a large bed and several storage areas. There was a walled off area that Strive guessed must be the bathroom. There was a window next to the bed that Strive took a quick peek out of but was disappointed to see that his view was partially blocked by what looked to be some sort of antenna. He walked over to the second room and found it furnished similarly to the first one but when he looked out the window he was relieved to see that the room was just far enough to the side that the antenna was no longer blocking his view of the stars. Strive peeked out of the doorway to see the entire brigade was watching him expectantly. His ears burned with embarrassment at the attention.

“I’ll take this one,” Strive said.

“Why so far away,” Lord Phobos joked, “The Commander doesn’t bite.”

“This one has a better view,” Strive explained.

“Right. The stars. I suppose after living in the Dark Zone you want to see as much of them as possible,” Commander Meouch said as he stroked his hand through his mane, “well let’s go back to the hanger and get your things. Then you can settle in for some rest.”

“Things?” Strive asked.  
“Yeah, your clothes and provisions,” Lord Phobos replied.

Strive sank partially behind the doorway as his ears burned even hotter with embarrassment.

“You…didn’t bring anything did you?” Commander Meouch said.

“I…mean…I never owned much in the first place… and after the ship crashed there wasn’t much time to think…I just,” Strive stuttered.

“You just took off?” Doctor Sung finished.

Strive only nodded. Commander Meouch sighed and ran his hand through his mane once more.

“Doctor Sung, take Strive down to general supply and get him set up with the basics. I’ll send a message ahead and let them know what’s going on. They shouldn’t give you any trouble.” Commander Meouch said.

“Oh a shopping trip, this should be fun. Let’s go kid,” Doctor Sung said as he got up and took Strives hand and headed for the door.


	8. A Shopping Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive goes shopping with Doctor Sung

Strive practically had to trot to keep up with Doctor Sung as he led him through the hallways and past a dizzying amount of rooms.

“So…uh,” Strive panted, “what exactly do I need to pick up?”

“Just the basics,” Doctor Sung quipped, “a few changes of clothes, towels, toiletries, nothing fancy. This place used to be the gift store but it doesn’t really carry any knick-nacks or decorations anymore.”

“Oh that’s alright. That room is fancy enough for me as it is. And everything you just described, it sounds like more than I’ve ever owned in my whole life,” Strive said.

Doctor Sung paused and turned to look at Strive. As the seconds passed Strive started to feel a flush of embarrassment rise in his ears and he looked down and started to fidget with his tunic.

“I mean we had those things, but I had to share with my father and any sort of entertainment I had to share with the other kids in the village,” Strive explained.

Doctor Sung gave a quick nod and turned back around.

“I suppose that makes sense. Let’s get a move on,” Doctor Sung said.

They continued down the hall until they reached a wide courtyard of some sort. On the far end was a brightly lit store front, above it was a long board that might have once held sign but had since been stripped bare. The glass doors slid open for Doctor Sung and Strive had a chance to look around. To his left was a counter and behind it was a young man in the Command’s grey uniform and a white scarf around his neck. To his left was rows of shelves with an overwhelming array of objects on the shelves.

“Hey Reim, did you get word we were coming?” Doctor Sung greeted the young man.

“Doctor Sung, yes I just got the message,” Reim replied, “Is this the new recruit?”

“Yes he is,” Doctor Sung chuckled, “we found him cruising around the Dark Zone all on his own.”

Reim’s eyes widened at this and he gave Strive a look that made his ears burn again. He wondered if everyone was going to stare at him in this manner.

“Well take your time looking around,” Reim said.

Doctor Sung led Strive through the aisles with an expert air, shoving items such as toilet paper, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and other such items into his arms. Finally they stopped at the back of the store where racks of uniforms stood next to racks of more colorful clothes.

“Now as a member of the Brigade we don’t really need to bother with a uniform,” Doctor Sung mused, “so let’s see what we have available over here.”

Doctor Sung thumbed through the racks almost too fast for Strive to keep up all while muttering to himself about sizes and colors. Finally he produced a long sleeved white shirt with silver cuffs and hem.

“This looks like it will fit. What do you think?” Doctor Sung asked.

“It’s beautiful, but it looks too fine for me,” Strive said, his arms trembling slightly with the weight of the items he already carried.

Doctor Sung paused for a while before patting Strive on the head.

“Don’t worry kid. Most of these are donations from well-meaning people who don’t seem to grasp the fact this is supposed to be a military operation. They would want you to have it,” Doctor Sung said.

However the next few clothing pieces Doctor Sung pulled were far more plain and Strive felt grateful for this.


	9. Lord Phobos Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive is taking off with Lord Phobos

Strive couldn’t sleep. It’s not that the bed wasn’t comfortable. It was the one of the softest things he had ever laid on. But that was the problem. It was so soft and so big it was just one more reminder of just how far away from home he was. Even the silky purple pajamas he now wore felt alien and strange. Quietly, he took one of the pillows from the bed and his top blanket and made his way to the window. There was a ledge on the window, big enough for someone to sit on and slightly cushioned. Here Strive curled up and fell asleep listening to whispers of the stars outside.

“Up and at ‘em kid!” Lord Phobos yelled and slammed open the door.

Strive tumbled from the window seat unceremoniously onto the ground. He shook his head groggily as he tried to remember where he was. Lord Phobos stood, momentarily, frozen with surprise in the doorway.

“Uh…kid? Did you sleep on the window seat last night?” He finally asked.

“Yes? The bed… it was just too big… I couldn’t sleep,” Strive mumbled.

If Lord Phobos thought this was strange he decided not to elaborate and just gave a nod instead.

“Well time to get dressed. You’re with me today,” Lord Phobos said.

And with that he left just as quickly as he had come leaving Strive sitting on the floor, slightly stunned by the whole encounter. Within a few minutes Strive was dressed, opting for his familiar clothes instead of any of his new ones, and walking into the commons area. The commons area was empty except for Lord Phobos who handed him some sort of food covered by a wrapper, grabbed his other arm and half dragged him into the hall.

Eventually Lord Phobos let go of his arm but Strive still struggled to keep up with him while also scarfing down the “breakfast bar” he had been handed. He did notice that Lord Phobos had a different air about him today, he was almost strutting down the hallway. As they entered the hanger, Lord Phobos made a beeline for a cart that had two odd black boxes on top of it. He waved Strive over and then handed him one.

“When you get on your ship hook this up to your control center. Don’t worry, your ship will make a space for it. Then follow me okay?” He instructed.

“Okay, but what are we doing?” Strive asked nervously.

“I’ll explain when we’re on our way, let’s go!” Lord Phobos said.

With that Lord Phobos raced off towards his ship. Strive, still feeling confused, turned to race off towards his. As the door to his morph ship opened Strive headed for the control center. Sure enough, there was a new slot in the dash, just big enough for the box. As he slid it into place he heard the revving of Lord Phobos’s engine and turned just in time to see him take off. Feeling slightly panicked now, Strive woke up his own ship and took off after him with only one thought on his mind. Now what was he getting into?


	10. First Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lord Phobos explains Strive's first mission

Strive had been following behind Lord Phobos for a while when he realized something. He thought, no, they can’t be heading where he thought they were heading but Lord Phobos wasn’t showing any signs of changing courses. Finally, he could stay silent no longer and he raised Lord Phobos on the comms.

“Uh, Lord Phobos?” Strive asked.

“Yeah? What’s bothering you kid?” Lord Phobos responded.

“Ah, first of all I’m not a kid. And secondly, are we headed straight for the Dark Zone?” Strive replied.

“Good eye! That’s exactly where we’re heading,” Lord Phobos said.

“What? Why?! Isn’t that dangerous?!” Strive said, the panic rising in his voice.

“Don’t worry, I know where the limit is.” Lord Phobos said, his voice calm.

“The limit?” Strive asked.

“How close we can get before the Shards try to pick a fight.” Lord Phobos explained.

“How would you know where that is?” Strive asked, slightly calmer now.

“Trial and error mostly,” Lord Phobos said.

Strive followed Lord Phobos quietly then, although he wasn’t quite reassured by Lord Phobos’ explanation of where they were going. But eventually Lord Phobos brought his ship to a stop and Strive pulled up next to him. In front of him was almost complete darkness. The only light came from the soft glow of the light of the stars behind him bouncing off the planetary atmospheres of the worlds trapped inside the Dark Zone.

“So,” Strive asked breaking the heavy atmosphere, “what are we supposed to do here?”

“Right, so you remember how badly it went for any ship that stood against the Shards went?” Lord Phobos asked.

Strive remembered the graveyard full of hollow remains of the ships that had stood against the Shards and gulped slightly.

“Anyways,” Lord Phobos continued, “Command has decided that we need to know as much as we can about the Shards before we try anything else. So we’re out here to track their patrols.”

“Track them?” Strive asked.

“Yep, if we can get a good idea of when they come and go it might be possible to run a stealth mission down to that planet of theirs,” Lord Phobos said, “So on that black box you should a red button on the display screen. Press it and it will start scanning the area in front of you.”

Strive looked down to see that the black box had turned itself on and there was a red button on screen. He tentatively touched it and the screen turned blue. Slowly, a model of the debris drifting out in front of him appeared on the screen.

“It scanned. Now what?” Strive asked.

“Now we wait. Once you spot a Shard ship, you touch it on the screen and the black box will track it’s movements until it’s out of range,” Lord Phobos explained.

“Wait that’s it? Isn’t that something the scanner could do on its own?” Strive asked, his disbelief evident in his tone.

“’Fraid so,” Lord Phobos laughed, “Unfortunately Shard Ships are hard to pick up on radar. They don’t let off any heat or exhaust, which is what the scanners would normally pick up on. So we just have to use our eyes. It’s tedious but it’s necessary.”

“What about radiation? Those ships glowed when you hit them,” Strive replied.

“Oh, good memory. Yes they do let off some radiation but it’s pretty similar to the radiation coming from all the other debris around here,” Lord Phobos explained.

“I see,” Strive said and was silent for a beat.

“Wait a second,” Strive said, “what was the hurry this morning? Did you have to get out here by a certain time?”

“No,” Lord Phobos admitted, “we just couldn’t decide who you would train with first last night. I wanted to make sure I was the first to snatch you up.”


	11. The Asteroid Field

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission begins
> 
> Sorry this is so late! Life got busy

At first Strive was nervous, his head bobbing quickly up and down as he switched between scanning the dark asteroid field in front of him and the black box in front of him. But, slowly, he began to relax. The drifting movements of the asteroids were aimless and halting with some coming to a complete halt until another asteroid gave them even the slightest tap to get the moving again. The Shards on the other hand, while also slow, moved consistently towards whatever their destination was. And if he was lucky he could catch a glimpse of the green glow that always came from the opening in the front of the Shards.

Eventually he fell into a rhythm of sorts. Scan, identify, tag and repeat. And, slowly, his mind began to wander. He started to listen a bit more closely to voices of the stars behind him. Most of them were nervous, being so close to the edge of the Dark Zone they had had a front row seat to the tragedy that had befallen their family. Some were still terrified and begged Strive to move away from the danger. Others were curious as to what he was doing out here. A few were in awe of his bravery, getting so close to what they perceived as certain death. Most were simply mournful, still crying over all the disappearances and worried that they would be next.

“Don’t worry,” Strive whispered to them, “I’m out here to help. These people, we want to make sure this never happens again.”

All of a sudden Strive’s eyes were drawn back to something on his screen. It took him a moment to refocus and realize what was wrong. All of the Shard ships he had tagged before had simply passed by, not paying him or Lord Phobos any attention. But the one Strive had just tagged had changed course, it was headed straight for them. Trying not to panic Strive hailed Lord Phobos on the comms.

“Uh, Lord Phobos?” Strive started.

“Yeah kid?” Lord Phobos responded.

“I think something is wrong with my screen. It says that a Shard is heading straight for us,” Strive said with only a mild tremor in his voice.

“That can’t be right, let me take a look here and KID WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOUR SHIP?!” Lord Phobos abruptly shouted.

“My ship?” Strive questioned as he finally raised his head from the screen.

Strive had to blink his eyes rapidly to adjust to the sudden brightness that surrounded him. It took him a moment to realize the light was coming from his ship. His ship was glowing. Or more accurately, it was shining. Like a beacon. A beacon that the Shard was heading straight for.

“INCOMING!” Lord Phobos yelled into the comms.

And just then the Shard burst through the asteroid field like a hunter after its prey. And its prey was Strive and his ship.


	12. Collision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive makes a first attempt at fighting.

Strive was frozen, his breath caught in his chest. He hadn’t gotten a very good look at the shards before, not with the rest of the Starlight Brigade’s ships obscuring his view. Now one was right in front of him. The ship seemed to be made of black crystal that gleamed like spilled oil in the light of the stars behind him. The front of the ship ended in a menacing point and the back expanding outward like the limbs of dead tree with the longest branch pointing straight downwards. Above the tip of the front of the ship was the windshield of the ship but Strive couldn’t see any pilot, only a sickly green glow. Strive wondered briefly how the ship could be moving as it didn’t seem to have any means of propulsion, yet it moved easily through the vacuum of space and was rapidly closing in on him.

“Move kid, move!” Lord Phobos commanded.

Shaken out of his stupor Strive swung his arms upwards and his ship responded by shooting straight upwards. As the Shard adjusted its course to follow a blast hammered into its side. The Shard turned slightly as if just noticing Lord Phobos’ presence.

“Run, kid!” Lord Phobos ordered.

“What? No! I can’t leave you!” Strive objected.

“It’s fine kid! I already sent out a distress signal! The rest of the brigade will be here any minute! You just need to get out of here!” Lord Phobos pressed.

“But…” Strive continued.

“NO BUTS!” Lord Phobos yelled.

Reluctantly, Strive turned his ship around, back in the direction of Command but then he felt it. The heat of a Shard blast ripping through space. But it hadn’t hit his ship. He spun his small ship back around and his breath caught in his chest once more. One of the wings of Lord Phobos’ ship had been blasted clean off and the side of his ship was black and bubbling. The ship listed to the side and the propulsion rockets in the back had gone dark.

“Lord Phobos?” Strive asked.

The comms remained silent.

“LORD PHOBOS?” Strive pleaded.

“Watch out…kid…” Lord Phobos’ voice was a whisper over the comms.

Strive let out the breath he was holding. Lord Phobos was alive at least. But then he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. The Shard was moving again. Not toward Lord Phobos. No, the Shard didn’t seem concerned about Lord Phobos’ ship at all. It was moving back towards Strive. Strive noticed that Lord Phobos’ attacks had barely left a fine web of green cracks in the Shard’s hull. In fact, if he remembered correctly it had taken the heavy hits from Haave’s missles to get the Shards to stop moving even for a moment. What chance did he have?

“Kid…get moving…” Lord Phobos’ whisper came over the comms again.

No. It didn’t matter what chance he stood. He could try and lead it away but Commander Meouch had said that the Shards hadn’t left the Dark Zone since their initial attack so there was no guarantee it would follow. That it even could follow. And if it couldn’t then it might continue its attack on Lord Phobos once he got away. Maybe if he could just stun it then it would give the rest of the brigade enough time to get here.

With determination in his heart Strive screamed as he launched the only attack he could think of. He charged the Shard head on, his ship and his heart crystal shining brighter than ever. There was a horrible crunching noise as the impact of the two ships colliding sent Strive tumbling backwards. Then there was only darkness.


	13. Injury

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive learns of old injuries

Strive’s head was ringing as he slowly opened his eyes. He nearly closed them immediately due to harshness of the lights overhead. He was laying on his back and, besides the throbbing in the back of his skull, was fairly comfortable.

“Where…?” he murmured as he brought his hand up to his eyes to try and block out some of the harsh lights.

“Hey! Our little trooper is awake!” an overly loud voice to his left announced.

Strive turned his head to the left and saw Dr. Sung sitting in an armchair, a magazine of some sort spread across his lap.

“Doctor? Where am I?” Strive asked, his eyes now adjusting to the lights.

“The medical bay, on Command. That little stunt of yours was effective but it gave you a very nice concussion,” Doctor Sung scolded, although his tone still held a note of amusement.

“A concussion…wait… that’s right! Where’s Lord Phobos!?” Strive said, trying to raise himself to a sitting position.

“Whoa, hold on kid he’s right next door. But slow down, I don’t think…” Doctor Sung said as he attempted to get Strive to lay back down.

But Doctor Sung was too slow. As soon as Strive got his legs untangled from the sheets he scurried, slightly unbalanced but still managing to dodge Doctor Sung, out the door and to the room next door, quickly throwing open the door.

“Lord Phobos! Are you…?” Strive’s question stuck in his throat as he took in the scene before him.

Commander Meouch and Haave Hogan sat on either side of the hospital bed. In the hospital bed lay a young man, his left side and most of his face horribly disfigured by red, twisting burns. His right arm was wrapped in a white cast and covering the lower half of his face was covered in some sort of respirator that seemed to be helping him breathe. Strive immediately burst into tears.

“Whoa, hey kid calm down,” Doctor Sung said as he came up behind Strive.

“But…but it’s my fault!” Strive sobbed.

“What? What’s your fault” Doctor Sung asked.

“That!” Strive said pointing at Lord Phobos, “if I had attacked sooner… he wouldn’t be so bad if I had…”

The rest of Strive’s explanation was cut off by another round of sobs. Doctor Sung rubbed his back awkwardly.

“No, kid…” Doctor Sung started.

“This wasn’t you,” Lord Phobos finished.

Strive looked up, startled, and saw that Lord Phobos’ eyes were open. Lord Phobos lifted his bandaged arm and gestured to his burns.

“These and…” Lord Phobos gestured to his respirator as well, “and this. These are old. I got these back during the raid. When we first captured the morph ships. I’m one of the few survivors from that mission.”

“Wait…so then that mask you’re always wearing…?” Strive said, slowly processing Lord Phobos’ words.

“The mask is a respirator to help me breathe. The only part of these injuries that was from today’s attack was this,” Lord Phobos said while waving his bandaged arm back and forth, “and it could have been a lot worse if you hadn’t stepped in. An interesting choice of attack by the way.”

“It was all I could think of,” Strive said, holding back a giggle, “wait what about the Shard? What happened to it?”

The rest of the Starlight Brigade shared an odd look.

“Well,” Commander Meouch said, “If you’re feeling up to it, I think you need to see this for yourself.”


	14. The Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A first look inside the Shard Ship

The ship seemed oddly quiet as the Starlight Brigade, minus Lord Phobos as they had left him to get his rest, headed for the hanger. The only sound was the echoing tap taps of their footsteps. Strive looked up at Commander Meouch’s back as he led the way. To his left was Dr. Sung and to his right was Space Ninja Brian. Haave Hogan brought up the rear. Strive wondered if there was a reason the Brigade had formed a protective circle around him and he tried to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat.

As the hanger door opened Strive realized why the rest of the ship seemed so quiet. A deafening roar of hundreds of separate conversations all being held at once washed over Strive. It looked like the entire crew of Command was here in the hanger. One of the nearest crew members noticed the brigade and elbowed another crew member by him. The conversations fell silent, one by one, as the crowd realized the Brigade was here. Strive’s skin prickled with the feeling of hundreds of eyes staring at him. He felt a nudge on his left side and he looked over to Dr. Sung. Dr. Sung gave him a wide grin and a thumbs up. Strive could only manage a weak smile in return. The Brigade started forward, towards the middle of the hanger bay, and the crowd parted around them.

Strives eyes widened in shock when he saw what was waiting in the middle of the hanger. Laying on its side was a mostly intact Shard ship. Hanging over the Shard ship was some sort of laser tool that seemed to be trying to cut into the Shard. As his eyes traveled over the hull of the ship Strive realized the hull had a large dent in it. A rather familiarly shaped dent.

“I…is that..,” Strive stuttered, “t...the one…I hit?”

“It is,” Commander Meouch confirmed.

“But…but it’s not moving. Even the ones Haave hit before, they started moving again,” Strive said.

“That’s right,” Commander Meouch said, “in all of our battles with the Shards before we’ve only been able to stun them for a short time. This is the first time that anyone’s attacks have seemed to…kill them.”

“But…how…,” Strives question faded as he recognized a familiar figure striding towards them.

“That is what I want to know,” Commander Greyson barked as her figure towered over Strive, “How could a nobody pilot from a planet no one has ever heard of manage to destroy an enemy we have been fighting for years?”

Before Strive could try and answer a large furry paw swung out in front of him, blocking him from Commander Greyson’s view.

“That’s enough Greyson. We all have a lot of questions but interrogating our cadet right after he’s woken up isn’t going to help.” Commander Meouch said.

Commander Greyson looked like she was about to continue but a shout from behind her caught everyone’s attention. Strive peeked over Commander Meouch’s arm to see two of the crew members that had been operating the laser were powering it down while two more were scrambling on top of the hull. With obvious effort they grabbed onto the hull and lifted away the piece that had been cut away by the laser to reveal an empty space beyond it. A third member lifted a flashlight and as he pointed it inside he gave a yell of alarm. Before Commander Greyson could stop them the Brigade rushed forward.

Strive wasn’t sure what he was expecting but this wasn’t it. He had thought that the ships themselves were alive but that wasn’t the case. There was a control panel and a captain’s chair. And someone was in the captain’s chair. A humanoid figure with greyish skin and rounded ears. There were odd, whisker-like protrusions coming out of its skin and its one pair of eyes stared blankly into space. But the part that made Strive’s skin crawl were black, crystal-like protrusions that seemed to be growing out of its arms, shoulder and the left half of its face. Dr. Sung clapped Space Ninja Brian on the shoulder.

“Looks like you were right. These things do have pilots,” he said.


	15. Rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commander Meouch knows best.

Strive scrambled down, off of the hull of the ship and dropped back down to the floor. He gripped his shoulders, trying to suppress the shudders coursing through his body. Despite the two encounters he had had with the Shard ships so far he had never once considered that they might have pilots inside them. A large furry hand covered one of his and he looked up to see Commander Meouch standing beside him. 

“You okay kid?” Commander Meouch asked. 

“Is he dead?” Strive asked in return.

Commander Meouch cocked his head to the side in confusion.

“The pilot. Is he dead?” Strive elaborated. 

“Ah. Well he…or she…I don’t really know I’ve never seen this species before, they do appear to be breathing. But they aren’t really responding either. We’ll just have to wait for the medics to get a better look at them,” Commander Meouch said, his ears flattened against his head so they almost disappeared into his mane. 

“Oh. I see,” Strive said. 

“Let’s get out of here. I think we’ve all had enough excitement for now and you need to get some rest,” Commander Meouch said as he started to steer Strive towards the exit. 

“But I was just asleep!” Strive protested.

“No, you were unconscious from a head injury. It’s not the same thing,” Commander Meouch said firmly. 

Strive footsteps barely made any sound as he and Commander Meouch padded down the nearly empty hallways of Command. But it didn’t matter as Strive’s thoughts kept wandering back towards the mysterious pilot. 

“Commander Meouch? Have you travelled a lot?” Strive asked. 

“Yes, I have. Even before this war, I was still a part of my planet’s military. We were required to travel frequently to outposts in several different galaxies,” Commander Meouch replied. 

Strive went silent then. If even Commander Meouch, who was so well traveled, had never seen anything like the pilot then it really was a mystery. Who knew what they were and what they wanted. Finally they arrived back at the Brigades sleeping quarters. 

“Take the rest of the day to rest and recover. We can continue your training tomorrow. Although, anything you do will likely have to stay on Command. Your ship isn’t quite ready to fly again yet,” Commander Meouch instructed. 

“Wait…my ship! That’s right! Is my ship okay?” Strive yelped.

“Yes of course…wait that’s right. We haven’t told you about that yet,” Commander Meouch realized.

“Told me what?” Strive asked.

“Morph ships…we aren’t quite sure how but they repair themselves. You did manage to crunch the front end of your ship but if we give it a day or two it will be good as new,” Commander Meouch explained.   
“Oh,” Strive said as he exhaled, “That’s a relief.”

“Yes, now go to bed. We’ll decide who your next teacher is tomorrow morning,” Commander Meouch said while giving Strive a slight push towards his bedroom door. 

Commander Meouch waited until Strive closed the door behind him before moving over to the couch and slumping down into it. Things were picking up speed in ways he couldn’t quite understand. Command had been in stalemate with the Shards for the longest time but Strive seemed to be changing all of that. He recalled Lord Phobos’ report of how the Shard ships had seemed to take a sudden interest in Strive’s ship after it had started glowing. Why had it done that and was it related to the state of the Shard ship now? Commander Meouch rubbed his temples. This was all too much for him, such analytics weren’t his area of expertise. Then an idea struck him. Tomorrow Haave Hogan would take over Strive’s training. If anyone could shed some light on Strive’s abilities, it would be him.


	16. Sweetness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive gets a taste of sweetness

Strive sat up from his makeshift bed on the window ledge. He peeked over to the clock on the wall and saw that it was morning, but only just barely. Strive pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He couldn’t stop thinking about the pilot and the Shard ship. He hadn’t mentioned this to the rest of the brigade, they would probably just brush it aside as his anxiety over the whole… incident. And maybe it was his anxiety, but he had gotten a feeling from the Shard ship and the pilot. A feeling of… wrongness. A feeling that both the ship and the pilot had been so violently twisted and turned into something that they were never supposed to be. A shudder ran down Strives spine and reverberated in his heart crystal. If their enemy was capable of causing such a transformation what where any of them supposed to do about it?

Doctor Sung looked up as Strive came out of his room. Even from across the room he could see the purple bags underneath the kid’s eyes. That wasn’t a good sign. Neither was the fact that Strive still had his blanket wrapped around his shoulders and that he was allowing it to trail behind his like a rather ridiculously long cape. 

“You didn’t sleep too well, did you?” Doctor Sung asked as Strive sat down on one of the couches. 

Strive only shook his head, his eyes bleary and downcast. 

Doctor Sung paused for a moment before walking over to a panel on the wall. He punched a few numbers into the keypad next to it and waited as the machine whirred. A few moments later he opened the panel and took out a tray with a bowl of hot, steaming… something. He walked over and plopped the tray on the table in front of Strive. 

“If you can’t sleep you better eat. You need to get some energy back somehow,” Doctor Sung said.

Strive gave the bowl a little sniff. The tan colored mush didn’t look like much but it did smell good. 

“It’s oatmeal,” Doctor Sung said, as if he had read his mind, “it comes from my planet, Earth. I know it doesn’t look like much but it’s good for you. The taste isn’t bad either, but I asked the kitchen to add some honey for you too.” 

“The kitchen?” Strive asked, “That little panel is a whole kitchen?"

“What? Oh, no that’s a teleporter. The keypad connects to the kitchen a few decks below us. They send the tray up through the teleporter,” Doctor Sung explained with an amused smile on his face. 

Strive blushed a little as he took a small spoonful of the oatmeal and ate it. He had to pause in surprise as the sweetness of the honey spread across his tongue. The rest of the oatmeal didn’t stand a chance as he scarfed it down. 

“I guessed right then, you do like sweets,” Doctor Sung chuckled. 

“I guess I do,” Strive mumbled, slightly embarrassed, “there aren’t many dishes on my planet that taste like this. You only ever get them during special events.” 

“Really? Well then remind me later to introduce you to chocolate,” Doctor Sung said, “So, Commander Meouch decided last night that the next Brigade member to get you for training would be Haave Hogan, since a lot of the work he does is here on base. But if you aren’t feeling up to it I can tell him you need another day to rest.”

Strive paused for a moment, clutching at the blanket still around his shoulders, before replying. 

“No, I don’t think trying to sleep more will help. I think I need something else to think about,” Strive said. 

“Well, then I think you’d better put that blanket back in your room, then I’ll take you to Haave’s station,” Doctor Sung said. 

Strive carried his blanket back towards his room as Doctor Sung carried the tray back to the teleporter. As he reached the door to his room a thought occurred to him. 

“Doctor Sung?” Strive asked. 

“Yes?” Doctor Sung replied. 

“That table…it’s the one Commander Meouch made all of those fancy holograms come out of right?” Strive said. 

“That’s correct,” Doctor Sung acknowledged. 

“Umm…should I really have been eating breakfast on it?” Strive asked. 

“…I won’t tell Commander Meouch if you don’t,” Doctor Sung finally said. 

Strive turned back to his room but now a small smile played across his lips.


	17. Scanners and Signals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive enters Haave's lab

Strive padded quietly after Doctor Sung as they wound their way through the halls of Command. Every now and then they would pass another member of the crew but they only paused for a moment to give Doctor Sung a hurried salute before rushing by. Strive wondered if it was the presence of the Shard pilot on board that was making them so antsy. 

Finally Doctor Sung stopped in front of a large metal door. He walked over to the key pad on the side of the doors, pressed a few buttons, and then spoke into the receiver at the bottom of the keypad. 

“Haave open up. I brought Strive,” Doctor Sung said. 

The doors slid open and Doctor Sung strode inside. Strive followed, slightly more tentively and his eyes widened as he took in the scene before him. On the left side of the room was a station that was covered in computer screens, all displaying different formulas and scanners of some sort. The right side of the room contained piles of machines whose purposes Strive could only begin to guess. But in the center of the room was another machine with a glass container at the top. And in the glass container was a small black crystal held up by three metal prongs. 

“Is that…?” Strive asked. 

“It is. Just re-moved from the pi-lots head the morn-ing,” Haave explained as he moved out from behind the machine.

“Why is it here?” Strive asked as he felt an odd tightness growing in his chest. 

“For ana-lysis,” Haave replied. 

“You see Strive,” Doctor Sung explained, “Haave is part of our research division as well as the brigade. He continuously scans the Dark Zone and the surrounding areas for data about the Shards as well as analyzing any samples we might bring him. He’s actually the one who picked up the signal from your ship.”

“Oooh,” Strive gasped, “Thank you then. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t found me.”

“I-it was no-thing,” Have said. 

“I have a question though…” Strive said. 

“What’s that?” Doctor Sung asked.

“Where are the…other members of research division?” Strive asked. 

“Well…” Doctor Sung said. 

“They g-ave me my own lab. Th-ey found my size…diff-cult to w-ork with,” Haave explained. 

“Oh,” Strive said. 

“Anyways, Strive, we were hoping you could help out with Haaves regular duties while he gets to work analyzing the crystal. What do you think?” Doctor Sung said. 

Strive paused for a moment, looking at the crystal. It was much fainter now, but he could still feel the horrible feeling of … wrongness that he had felt coming from the pilot before. Part of him wanted to run back to his room and never look back. But if there was a chance that Haave could figure out what this crystal was and where this wrongness was coming from…

“I think I can manage,” Strive said. 

“All right, I leave you to it,” Doctor Sung said as he turned and left the room. 

Haave motioned for Strive to come and join him near the large array of screens. As he approached Haave handed him a tablet and pointed to the screen in the center.

“These num-bers are the signals we are picking up. Rec-ord them here. I will ana-lyze them la-ter. I will set it so it go-es slow,” Haave said as he turned back towards the crystal. 

Strive hesitated for a moment before turning towards the screen. It all seemed simple enough and it wasn’t long before he was engrossed in his task. 

Once he noticed that Strive’s attention was turned towards his task Haave lifted one of his four arms towards one of the scanners attached to the ceiling and directed away from the crystal and instead towards Strive. Haave wasn’t sure what exactly Commander Meouch was hoping Haave could find out about Strive but he figured there was no reason to make the kid nervous just yet. He'd just take a scan and see where that led him.


	18. Transformation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pilot undergoes a frighting transformation.

Strive was getting bored. It had been interesting at first, thinking that all of the numbers passing by on the screen were signals carrying messages to distant places, but soon they devolved into nothing more than a steady stream of numbers whose meanings he didn’t know. Eventually entering the numbers became so automatic that his mind began to wander. He wondered, could he hear the stars from inside Haave’s lab? All of the times before when he had spoken to them he had been able to see them. But he couldn’t remember if that was a necessity or not. Well, it couldn’t hurt to try. He was safe and sound inside of Command after all. Cautiously, Strive reached for the stars. 

She couldn’t explain it. Doctor Shik continued to stare at the readings on her tablet. She had been put in charge of the team that was analyzing and caring for this so called pilot but she couldn’t make heads of tails of the readings her machines were picking up. He was breathing and hearts, the scanners had picked up three, were beating but there was no sign of any brain activity. And yet, this person was sitting in the pilot’s seat of the ship. How could a supposedly brain dead pilot operate a ship? 

Shik tugged absent mindedly at the hood of her hazmat suit. Her head felt like it was boiling due to her mass of curls that was just barely held in check by an overworked scrunchie. There had to be another test they could run. Or maybe she should take a break. The results of the blood test should be back soon, perhaps if they could surmise which planet the pilot came from then that would yield some answers. 

Then an alarm went off. And another. And another. Shik’s head whipped up from her tablet and her breath caught in her throat. The pilot was sitting up. And the crystalline structures on his body, they were spreading. Shik and the rest of the team stood, frozen in horror, as more and more black crystals sprouted from the pilots face and others tore through the hospital gown as the grew from the pilots shoulders and back. 

“Everyone out! Now!” Shik ordered as she shook herself out of her shock.

As the last of her team exited the medical bay Shik rushed out of the lab and pressed the lockdown button. She wasn’t sure what triggered this transformation but she knew she couldn’t let it escape to the rest of Command. She rushed towards the intercom but an odd creaking noise stopped her. The steel walls surrounding the medical bay were buldging and twisting and finally they gave way as a shaft of black crystal burst through. Then Shik’s world went black as another shaft pushed through the wall and slammed her in the chest. 

Strive and Haave’s heads both snapped up as the alarms blared in the lab. Strive shook his head for a moment, he was sure he had been so close to reaching the stars but their voices had remained so quiet. Maybe it was the interference from being inside Command? 

“St-rive,” Haave’s voice broke through the alarms.

“Haave? What’s going on?” Strive yelled, not sure how well Haave could hear him. 

“Lo-ok,” Haave said, pointing at the crystal in the machine. 

For a moment Strive wasn’t sure what he was looking at but then he realized. The crystal had grown and was now around twice the size it had been when Strive entered the lab. 

“It’s… bigger? Haave what’s going on? How is this….” Strive’s question is interrupted by shattering glass. 

Thin shafts of black crystal invade the lab as the crystal bursts free from its glass prison as alarms continue to blare throughout Command.


	19. Shield

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive and Haave take stock of the situation

“Str-ive,” Haave said, his robotic voice still betraying his concern. 

Strive groaned, his head ringing. He had to be dead. He remembered the crystal growing and exploding to fill the lab. But he had to admit, besides his pounding head he felt pretty good for a dead person. Strive slowly raised his head to see Haave crouching over him. 

“Haave? What happened?” Strive asked groggily. 

“You are a-wake. This is good. The crys-tal. It had an un-expected re-action. To what, I do not know,” Haave replied. 

“I think that’s a bit of an understatement. Now what? What do we do?” Strive asked. 

“We must neu-tralize the crystals before they spre-ad to the rest of Com-mand. In the main lab, we have stores of hy-drofluoric acid. We can u-se it to cut a p-ath to the co-re and de-story it,” Haave explained. 

“That sounds like a plan. Or at least the start of one. I guess we should get moving?” Strive said. 

“You must f-ree me first,” Haave replied. 

“Free you?” Strive asked. 

Strive peeked around Haave’s arms and suppressed a small gasp. Piercing into Haave’s back was several branches of crystal, pinning him to the side of the lab. Slowly he realized…Haave’s body had been pinned at a rather odd angle. Almost as if…

“Haave…did you shield me?” Strive asked quietly. 

“Yes,” Haave replied. 

“But...b-but why…” Strive stammered. 

“You are v-unerable. I am not,” Haave said. 

“Doesn’t it hurt?” Strive asked. 

“N-no. They did not pierce d-eep. They are not inter-fering with my func-tions. I am only stuck,” Haave explained. 

“What can I do?” Strive asked. 

“In the draw-er behind you. There are tools. Use one to br-eak the crystals. Hurry, we don’t have much time,” Haave said. 

Peeking out into the lab again Strive realized with growing horror that the crystals hadn’t stopped growing. Before his eyes a new branch burst forth from one of the main branches. Strive turned away from the scene and slowly slid open the drawer and rummaged through the tools until he came across a sturdy looking…something. He wasn’t sure what it was but it looked sturdy. 

“Will this work?” Strive asked. 

“Most l-ikely,” Haave replied. 

Slowly, Strive squeezed his body in between Haave and the wall of the lab until he was kneeling on top of Haave. He took a deep breath, then raised the tool above his head and brought it down on the first crystal branch.


	20. Traps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haave and Strive face difficulty getting to the lab.

Where had it gone? The crystal hummed, deep in thought. It was awake now, though it wasn’t sure that sleep was the correct term for whatever it had been before. Then it had felt it, that light. It was so warm and inviting. It wanted it. But why had it wanted it? The crystal remembered…something. An order. To hunt. To retrieve. To return. But who was giving the orders? The crystal couldn’t remember. Then an even older memory. Full of warmth and that same light. The crystal still wanted it. The old order didn’t matter. It would take that light for itself. It was fainter now, but the crystal could still sense the light somewhere nearby. It was time to hunt. 

Strive jogged behind Haave, it was the only way for him to keep up with Haave’s long strides. Every now and then Strive glanced worriedly at the puncture wounds in Haave’s back. He knew that Haave said that the shards hadn’t severed anything important and that he couldn’t actually feel pain, but Strive still felt a gnawing sense of guilt knowing that the injuries were caused from Haave protecting him. Strive’s ears twitched at a tinkling sound from behind him. They had closed the doors to the lab behind them but evidently it hadn’t stopped the crystals from spreading. 

“H-Haave,” Strive panted, “the crystals. They’re growing even more, I can hear them.” 

“As expected,” Haave replied, “the lab isn’t much f-urther now.”

“It is? I thought the main lab would be closer to the center of the ship, not on the outskirts,” Strive said, trying to distract himself from sounds of the growing crystals behind him.

“Too dangerous,” Haave said.

“Dangerous?” Strive asked.

“On the out-skirts of the ship there is less of a ch-ance of the ships vital sy-stems being damaged if an ex-plosion were to happen,” Haave explained. 

“Oh,” was all Strive could think as a reply. 

Strive was so busy thinking about what Haave’s explanation meant that he didn’t notice when Haave stopped walking and ran straight past him. Strive gave a yelp of surprise as Haave grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him backwards. There was a groan and then a crash as thick branches of crystal rapidly pushed through the floor to form what looked to be…

“Is that… a cage?” Strive asked softly, his voice tight with fear. 

“…yes. And also a trap,” Haave replied after a moments pause. 

“Why…why would the crystals,” Strive said, shaking so hard he couldn’t finish his question. 

“They are hunting,” Haave replied. 

“Me?” Strive asked. 

“Perhaps. I am lacking data on this,” Haave said. 

The tinkling sounds increased again as more, smaller branches started to grow from the branches in front of them. Strive shakily got up and moved closer to Haave. 

“Is there another way to the lab?” Strive asked. 

“Yes, but there is not enough time,” Haave replied. 

“Then what…” Strive interrupted his own question with another yelp as Haave picked him up with one of his lower two arms. 

Haave then leaned forward as if bracing himself for something. Strive realized what he was planning just as he was about to do it. 

“Haave wait!” Strive yelled. 

Haave charged at the crystals like a linebacker, shattering them with immense force. As he reached the other side he picked up his pace until it resembled an odd, gaited run with Strive still being carried in one of his four arms. Slightly dazed, Strive finally lowered his arms from his face. Finally, Haave stopped in front of large door labelled LAB-001.

“We are here,” stated Haave as he set down Strive. 

“Oh. Good. Haave?” Strive asked. 

“Y-es?” Haave said. 

“If we can avoid it, can we never do that again?” Strive asked. 

“A-greed,” Haave said as he opened the doors to the lab. 

It had almost had it. The light had almost been in its grasp. What had happened? The crystal expanded its senses. Then it sensed them. Their movement. Their heat. There was other life in the area. It had been so blinded in its pursuit of the light that it hadn’t even noticed them before. They must have interfered. They would have to be dealt with first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are my chapters actually getting longer?


	21. The Lab

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haave and Strive gear up.

Strive and Haave cautiously entered the lab. Instead of being lit with the bright florescent lights, like Haave’s lab, this lab seemed to only be lit with dull red lights. Strive wanted to ask why this was but fear froze the words in his throat. Strive stuck close to Haave’s side as they slowly walked forward until a sharp yell from their right startled them both. Strive found himself being shoved behind Haave as Haave turned to face the sound. 

“Professor Rims?” Haave asked. 

Strive peeked out from behind Haave and squinted in the dim light. He could make out the form of a small, roundish man with a pair of spectacles perched on a rather large nose. He also wore a long, white lab coat. Behind him were two more cowering figures in white lab coats. 

“Oh Haave, thank goodness it’s just you,” Professor Rims said, “And… whose that hiding behind you?”

“This is Strive. The newest member of the bri-gade,” Haave explained. 

“Oh yes, I’ve heard about you. You made quite the entrance young man,” Professor Rims said as he extended his hand to Strive. 

Strive moved out from behind Haave to shake Professor Rim’s hand and was surprised by his strong grip. He decided immediately that he liked this man.

“Pro-fessor, where is the rest of your team?” Haave asked. 

“They went down to the loading bay to pick up our latest supplies. I’m afraid they likely got stuck behind the fire doors,” Professor Rims explained. 

“The fire doors? But there’s no fire, I don’t think,” Strive said. 

“Quite right but I’m afraid whatever happened in the med bay is wreaking havoc on our electrical systems. It’s even managed to reduce the lab to running on backup power only,” Professor Rims grumbled. 

“The med bay? You know where this started?” Strive asked. 

“Oh yes, yes. I managed to get one of our sensors working with one of the hand held generators. Come see,” Professor Rims said and he started making his way towards one of the corners of the lab. 

Professor Rims led Strive and Haave a mid-sized monitor in the back corner of the lab. The Professor let out a small grumble of frustration when he realized the monitor was dark and gave a small machine on the floor next to it a sharp kick. The machine whirred back to life and the monitor flickered back on. On the screen was a map of Command with a small blue dot marking their position. Seemingly filling the area next to them was a large black mass that resembled some sort of many armed monster. 

“Now you see,” said the Professor pointing to the center of the mass, “this is the med bay. I was supposed to join Doctor Shik down there this morning and assist with the diagnosis of the pilot but my supply drop was late and I had reschedule that. Lucky me I suppose, since I’m guessing this all has something to do with our new guest? And over here is a smaller epicenter, I do believe that is your lab Haave. I’m guessing they gave you a smaller sample to analyze as well?”

As Haave nodded his affirmative Strive noticed some small red slashes going across the hallways surrounding them. 

“Professor, what are those?” Strive asked.

“Those are the closed fire doors,” Professor Rims said. 

“Oh,” was all Strive could manage to say. 

Strive felt a crawling sense of dread travelling up his spine. All of the surrounding hallways were closed off by fire doors. They were cut off. There would be no help coming from the rest of the Brigade, or anyone else for that matter. 

“Pro-fessor. We came for the hy-drofluoric acid. If we can cut this off at the source we may be ab-le to stop this,” Haave said. 

“Ah! Yes! A capital idea! Bec! Jeremy! Ready the acid and the dispersal units for Haave!” the Professor said. 

“For Strive too,” Haave said, “he is a Brigade member too. He will be assisting me.” 

Professor Rims gave Strive a curious look but didn’t argue. The two assistants rushed around the lab and came back with two odd looking backpacks with hoses coming out of the bottom. The female assistant, Strive was pretty sure this was Bec, came up to him and shoved a clear mask over his face.

“What’s this for?” Strive asked, his voice sounding odd through the mask.

“The acid emits some pretty strong fumes when it makes contact with objects. They aren’t deadly, but we don’t want to passing out either,” Bec said hurriedly as she reached down and handed Strive the hose that was attached to the backpack, “Now this is the trigger. Squeeze it to spray the acid. The stream should be about two feet long so you don’t have to get to close to those…things. Normally I would be giving you a much longer tutorial but we don’t have a whole lot of time so… just don’t point the nozzle at yourself. Or Haave. And try and keep an eye on where Haave is spraying too.” 

Strive could only nod his understanding. He felt like his stomach was about to boil over from nervousness. He was barely aware of the weight of the backpack as Bec helped him tighten the straps that secured it to his back. 

“Strive, let’s go,” Haave said.


	22. Crumble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive and Haave make a stand against the crystals

Strive jogged after Haave, the weight of the pack strange and cumbersome. His thoughts were spinning in an endless loop. They were trapped. They were cut off. This had to work. What were they going to do if this didn’t work?

“Strive,” Haave’s voice cut through his thoughts. 

Strive skidded to a halt and focused on the scene before him. They had reached the crystals. They filled the hallway before him, some merely jutting up the floor while others had sprouted branches that twisted and turned through air in a dizzying black knot. It was almost beautiful in a sickening way. 

Haave readied his nozzle and Strive scrambled to do the same. Without any signal or warning Haave started spraying the crystals. Strive took a deep breath to steady his shaking hands and pulled the trigger. The acid fell like a fine mist on the crystals and wherever it touched them the crystals lost their shine and became brittle as Haave demonstrated by easily shattering the crystals with a firm kick once he got close enough. 

“Watch the floor. It may be comp-romised,” Haave ordered as they made their way across the once crystal infested floor.

Strive only nodded in response. He couldn’t bring himself to talk as a flicker of hope made its way through the bubbles of nerves still resting in his chest. This was actually working. They just might survive this. 

They were hurting it. The crystal couldn’t feel pain per say but it felt as it lost its connection with each small piece of itself. This wouldn’t do. It couldn’t crumble before catching the light. Not when it was do close. It had to end this now. 

“STR-IVE!” Haave’s voice cut through eerie silence that had encompassed them. 

Strive whirled around just in time to see a massive shaft of crystal bearing down on him from above. He had only moments to wonder where it had come from before it was on him. He twisted to the side as the shaft slammed into the ground. Strive screamed as an intense burning sensation scorched his leg. The crystals must ruptured his pack! 

“STRIVE!” Haave yelled again as he rushed towards him. 

Strive felt the vibrations growing underneath him and realized a moment too late. 

“Haave! Look out!” Strive cried out. 

Strive’s warning came too late. Another shaft of crystal burst through the floor, piercing straight through Haave’s chest. A shower of sparks erupted from Haave’s back and with a final jerk, Haave’s body went still. 

Crying in both pain and terror Strive started to crawl towards his fallen teammate. He just barely registered the rumbling sound from above as another shaft of crystal descended from above him. To his surprise the crystal grew and formed around him to pin him to the ground instead of crushing him. And then came the pulling sensation. It was as if the crystals were trying to pull something from his very soul. Haave had been right, the crystals wanted something from him but what? 

Strive looked over at Haave’s still form. No. He couldn’t let it end here. The muddled mix of fear and grief that had knotted itself in his chest melted away into a fierce burning sensation but unlike the burning in his leg, this felt good. Strive let out a primal scream as he let his light pour out of him. And every black crystal that the light touched, paled, turned transparent, and then crumbled into dust. 

If the crystal could sigh in relief it would have. It could sense the light washing over it and it remembered. This was what it was supposed to be. This was what it had been, those years ago. It couldn’t quite return to its old form but it could return to the natural cycle of things. And that alone was enough. 

Shik could hardly believe her eyes. One moment she had been pinned to the wall by the crystals and the next the crystals had lost their black coloring and crumbled into dust. Shakily, she stood up and looked around to assess the damage. The entire med bay was in shambles, all of the windows were broken and the walls torn apart. But, surprisingly, it looked like the hull of the ship itself hadn’t been breached. Then Shik spotted the pilot laying in a heap on the ground. Carefully she picked her way through the debris to his side. She lightly placed her hand on his chest. It wasn’t moving. The pilot was gone. 

Haave had been paralyzed. The crystal shaft had severed the wires that let him control his robotic body. But his optics were still working. So he saw Strive’s body light up, so bright he was blinded for a moment. He saw the crystals become transparent and crumble into a dust that shimmered as it floated in the air around them. Just who was Strive? Haave wondered this as his view of Strive fell away as the crystal shaft supporting him crumbled as well. Or more importantly, he thought, what was Strive?


	23. Repairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive wakes up after a long rest.

Strive was floating. Or at least it felt that way. He was warm and comfortable, his thoughts meandering across his tired brain. But there was one nagging thought that kept returning like a thorn in his side. Wasn’t he supposed to be doing something?

With a groan Strive opened his eyes only to be blinded by bright lights once again. Slowly, he began to register the things around him. Once again, he was lying in a hospital bed, but how could that be? The med bay had been destroyed, hadn’t it?

“Oh good, you’re awake,” someone said. 

Strive turned his head to look at the speaker. Standing to his left was a middle aged, dark skinned woman with an explosion of black curls around her head like a halo. She walked over to his side, her while lab coat drifting out behind her. 

“I’m Doctor Shik, I’m just going to check a few things and I want you to answer a few things questions for me okay? We’re just going to make sure you don’t have a concussion,” Dr. Shik said.

“Okay,” Strive croaked, he remembered another doctor doing this after his last stay in the med bay. 

Doctor Shik crouched closer to him and shined a light in one of his eyes, making him squint. 

“Alright, can you tell me your name?” Dr. Shik asked. 

“Strive,” Strive answered.

“Do you know where you are?” Dr. Shik asked, moving the light to his other eye. 

“On Command, in the med bay. But that can’t be right,” Strive said.

“Oh? Why’s that?” Dr. Shik asked, turning off the light. 

“The med bay…it was destroyed… the crystals,” Strive said with growing horror, “Lord Phobos! The Pilot! Oh no, Haave!” 

Strive was struggling to sit up now against the blankets that suddenly seemed to weigh a ton. 

“Woah, hold on now,” Dr. Shik said putting a hand against his chest, “you’re obviously lucid enough for answers so let me explain a few things. First of all, you’re in the secondary med bay. We’re lucky Command has this built in. It comes standard with all large passenger ships in case there’s some sort out break. We moved all of our patients in here when we brought the pilot into the main med bay in case, he had something contagious. It looks like we were partially correct.”

“So, Lord Phobos…?” Strive asked. 

“He was in here when the outbreak occurred. He is perfectly fine, in fact we released him yesterday,” Dr. Shik said. 

“Yesterday?” Strive asked, his voice raising in alarm. 

“Yes, I’m afraid you’ve been asleep for three days now,” Dr. Shik said.

“Oh,” Strive said.

They were both silent for a moment as Strive processed this new information. 

“What…what about Haave?” Strive finally asked. 

“He is also alright, although his … wounds are mechanical in nature so he’s being treated in Professor Rim’s lab. I imagine the rest of the brigade is with him, I practically had to chase them out of here with broom earlier. They wouldn’t stop hovering and give you room to rest,” Dr. Shik explained. 

“Oh,” Strive said with a small smile, “And what about the pilot?”

Dr. Shik paused and her eyes turned downcast. A feeling of dread rose into Strive’s throat. 

“Dr. Shik?” Strive asked. 

“I’m sorry Strive. When they crystals disintegrated the pilot… expired. My current theory is that the crystals were somehow… sustaining him so when they were destroyed… it was just too much for his system,” Dr. Shik said, her voice trailing off. 

“Oh,” Strive mumbled. 

Another awkward silence fell between them with Dr. Shik staring at the floor and Strive staring at his top blanket. He realized that it was the blanket from the bed in his room. One of the brigade members must have brought it. 

“Can I see Haave?” Strive finally asked. 

Dr. Shik looked up at Strive, her head cocked to one side as if contemplating something. 

“Do you promise to stay in bed and listen to all of my instructions afterwards if I bring you to him?” Dr. Shik asked. 

Strive nodded eagerly. Dr. Shik gave a sigh. 

“Hang on. I’ll get the wheelchair, you’re going to need it,” Dr. Shik said. 

A wheelchair? Why did he need that? Strive wondered. Dr. Shik left and returned a few moments later with a simple, black wheelchair. She pulled back Strive’s blankets and Strive noticed the bandage around his leg and he remembered the acid burning down his leg. They must have given him something to numb the pain Strive thought as Dr. Shik easily picked him up and brought him over to the wheelchair. After arranging him in the wheelchair, Dr. Shik took the top blanket off of the bed and covered Strive’s legs with it and wheeled him out of the room. 

They were both quiet as Dr. Shik wheeled Strive down the hallways. As they made their way through the ship crew members rushed past them. Some of them paused to give Dr. Shik a quick salute but most just ran past without giving them a second look. As the minutes dragged by Strive realized that the secondary med bay must be located on the opposite end of the ship from the primary med bay. That was the only way this walk could be taking so long. 

Finally, they made it to Professor Rim’s lab. As the doors slid open, Strive’s breath caught in his throat. It was true, with the lights on Professor Rim’s lab was a much more impressive sight. The array of strange machines, covered with blinking and dancing lights was twice the size of Haave’s lab. But that wasn’t the source of Strive’s shock. Sitting in the center of the lab was Haave, whole and complete like he had never been damaged. 

“Haave!” Strive cried leaning forward in the wheelchair with only Dr. Shik’s disapproving snort preventing him from trying to stand. 

“Strive? You’re awake!” Doctor Sung said.

Strive turned to the left to see the rest of the Brigade standing there.

“Oh, so I was right. This is where you all went when I chased you out,” Dr. Shik remarked. 

“Yeah, well we had to be here for the transfer. I’m glad you brought Strive, I’m sure Haave will be happy to see him,” Commander Meouch said. 

“The transfer?” Strive asked. 

Before anyone could answer him, Professor Rims burst into the room from an adjoining room Strive hadn’t noticed before. Behind him was one of his assistants, Bec he remembered, wheeling a cart. 

“Oh good, everyone is here. Oh, even young Strive! Glad you could make it. You can help with the transfer test,” Professor Rims said. 

As the assistant rolled the cart up to Haave’s body Strive’s eyes focused on the contents of the car. On top of the cart was a dome shaped glass container with a metal bottom filled with a blue tinted fluid. Floating in the fluid with wires attached to the bottom of it was… a brain. Strive wanted to say something but his voice was frozen with shock. He was finally able to speak as Professor Rims opened the head of Haave’s body and began to hook up the container to the body.

“Dr. Shik? What’s going on?” Strive whispered. 

“Hm? Oh, have they not told you about this?” Dr. Shik asked. 

“…no,” Strive said. 

“Well that’s a bit irresponsible of them. But never mind, you see Haave Hogan is the receiver of the first full body prosthetic. In other words, his brain is still organic but the rest of him is mechanical.” Dr. Shik explained. 

“What happened to him?” Strive asked as he watched Professor Rims make the last few adjustments. 

“I don’t know the details, but I think it was some sort of engineering accident. You’d have to ask Haave though,” Dr. Shik said as Professor Rims closed the metal dome over Haave’s brain. 

“All right, initiating transfer, now,” Professor Rims said. 

A silence fell over the lab except for the humming of machinery. Then, with a whirring noise, Haave raised his head. 

“Initiating transfer test, Haave, can you please name the people in this room?” Professor Rims asked. 

“Pro-fessor Rims. Bec. Comm-ander Meouch. Doc-tor Sung. Lord Pho-bos. Ninja Brian. Doc-tor Shik. St-rive,” Haave said as he focused on Strive, “Strive… you are un-harmed?”

“Yes. I’m okay. Are you…okay?” Strive asked.

“I am repaired,” Haave replied. 

“Good, I’m glad,” Strive replied with a small smile.


	24. Gifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive makes special presents for the rest of the brigade.

Strive flinched as the needle entered his arm. He tried to focus on the poster on the wall that featured a rather fuzzy creature clinging to the limb of a branch with the caption ‘hang in there,’ but it couldn’t quite distract him from the rather uncomfortable feeling of having his blood drawn. 

“Dr. Shik? Is this really necessary?” Strive asked. 

“Yes it is. Honestly, Commander Meouch should have brought you in for a full physical when you first arrived but those bonehead teammates of yours were too excited I guess,” Dr. Shik said as she removed the needle, “The truth is we don’t have a record of your species anywhere in our medical database. I need to have some idea of what’s normal for you and what’s not if I’m going to have any chance of treating you properly. I’m lucky we haven’t accidently killed you during your last two trips to the med bay.” 

Strive sighed and rubbed his leg. They had removed the bandages earlier but his leg still felt a little strange. Dr. Shik had said that this was because the skin was still new and tender. He turned his head back to Dr. Shik as she made a small, confused noise. When she noticed he was watching Dr. Shik tapped the vial of his blood and the blood swirled and odd, bioluminescent swirls appeared. 

“Is this…normal?” Dr. Shik asked. 

“I think? I mean, I’ve never had my blood drawn before,” Strive answered, still staring at the vial. 

“Right,” Dr. Shik said, “anyways you’re free to go now. And remember you are to rest for the next two days. No more training until I say you are fully recovered, okay?”

“But what am I supposed to do in the meantime?” Strive asked. 

“I’m sure you’ll find something to occupy yourself. Your teammates should be too busy helping with repairs to get you into trouble anyways,” Dr. Shik said with a dismissive wave.

Strive walked slowly down the hallways. What would he do while his teammates were busy? He didn’t really know anyone else on the ship. Not anyone with free time anyways. Maybe he could make something? Thank you gifts for the brigade? He had known them for such a short time but they had done so much for him. His pace quickened, he knew exactly what to make for them. 

After several wrong turns and a few sets of bad directions Strive was finally in front of supply store. He cautiously stepped in and spotted Reim behind the counter just as Reim spotted him. 

“Hey it’s the little rookie again! What can I get for you?” Reim asked. 

“Uh it’s kind of an unusual request,” Strive said as he walked up to the counter.

“Well we have plenty of unusual stuff. What’s up?” Reim said. 

“Do you have any crystals in stock?” Strive asked. 

“Oh jeez. Give me a second,” Reim said. 

Reim stepped out from behind the counter and headed to a small door in the back. Reim opened up the door and, with a grunt, lifted a rather large box out of it. With some effort he brought it back to the counter. Strive peeked inside and was surprised to see it was filled with crystals of various shapes and colors. 

“Apparently there’s a group of people back on earth that believe these things have mystical healing properties and such. They keep sending us boxes of them every cycle or so. I know they mean well, but I’m never sure what to do with them. Anyways, will they work for what you have in mind?” Reim asked. 

“Yes they’re perfect,” Strive said as he set a few of them on the counter, “Um, how much do they cost?”

“Oh just take them. They’re just taking up space and no one else has asked for any since I started working here,” Reim replied. 

Back in his room, Strive set out the five crystals in front of him. He hoped he remembered how to do this, he hadn’t tried since he was very small. He picked up one crystal and held it at arm’s length and focused. He closed his eyes and reached inwards for his heart crystal. He felt its warmth and steady pulse that sent energy flowing through his body. Then he grabbed a small piece of that energy and pulled, drawing it up his arm and out through his fingertips. He only stopped when he saw a red light glowing through his eye lids. 

Strive heard a collective groan from outside his door. He opened it a crack and saw his teammates sprawled in various positions on the couches. He quickly gathered the crystals in his arms. He hoped they liked them. 

“I’m telling you,” Doctor Sung complained, “The way Greyson’s been working us it’s like she is blaming us for all this damage.”

“Give her a break,” Commander Meouch replied, “She has an entire ship of people to look after. It’s imperative these repairs are completed as soon as possible. Strive? Is that you?”

Strive jumped slightly at the sound of his name but slowly started forward. 

“Um…it…it sounds like you had a long day,” Strive said. 

“Yeah, nothing we can’t handle though. Whatcha got there?” Lord Phobos asked. 

Strive gently set the five crystals down on the table, each one now glowing with a steady light. 

“They’re…uh… presents. I wanted to thank you guys. For everything you’ve done for me,” Strive said shyly. 

“Woah,” Dr. Sung said softly, “How are they glowing like that?”

“I transferred a little of the energy from my heart crystal into these crystals,” Strive explained. 

“Seriously? You can do that? And it doesn’t hurt?” Lord Phobos said. 

“No! I have plenty of energy to spare so it doesn’t hurt or anything. Really, crystals like these used to be a really common gift back home before the stars went away,” Strive continued, “after they left though, no one has really had the energy to make them.” 

Strive quickly picked up the crystals and handed them out. To Lord Phobos he handed a red one, the orange one to Space Ninja Brian, the yellow one to Dr. Sung, the green one to Haave Hogan and the blue one to Commander Meouch. 

“These crystals, is there any special meaning to them?” Commander Meouch asked as examined the crystal in his cupped palm. 

“Uh, something along the lines of ‘I’m happy you exist’ and ‘I want to share my light with you,’” Strive replied. 

“Then I’m honored,” Commander Meouch said. 

Strive turned at a slight hissing noise to see that a small hatch had opened in the right side of Haave Hogan’s chest. Haave gingerly took his crystal and placed it inside. The hatch closed and Haave gave Strive a small nod. Strive could only smile in reply.


	25. Suspicions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Shik and Haave grow suspicious of Commander Greyson

Dr. Shik sat quietly at her computer entering data into her patient database. It was late and the med bay was all but abandoned but she wanted to finish this before she retired for the night. She sighed and rubbed her temples as she stared at Strive’s medical report. It seemed, in many ways, Strive’s species was rather similar to humans. His blood contained many of the same elements as human blood like red blood cells, platelets and such. But the red blood cells seemed to be transporting more than the usual oxygen and nutrients. They seemed to be carrying a mineral component as well that she had yet to identify but seemed to be what gave Strive’s blood it’s darker, purple color. Otherwise, all she knew was that this component seemed to react and produce energy when exposed to light, almost like a form of photosynthesis. But according to Doctor Sung, Strive ate and slept like the rest of them. Did that mean that Strive had two forms of creating energy for his body? Why would his species need this? Were other parts of his body sensitive to light, like his skin? Or even that strange crystal that was on his chest? Maybe she should call him back in for more tests…

“Doctor Shik,” a voice said from behind Dr. Shik. 

Dr. Shik jumped from her chair and spun around. Standing behind her was Commander Greyson. 

“Commander Greyson,” Dr. Shik said as smoothed her lab coat, “you startled me.”

“Yes I can see that. My apologies,” Commander Greyson said, “I see you’re hard at work as always.”

“Yes of course. There is always more to be done,” Dr. Shik responded. 

“Are those the medical records for our new brigade member?” Commander Greyson asked as she peered around Dr. Shik’s shoulder.

“Yes they are. I was just finishing entering them into our database,” Dr. Shik replied.

“May I see them? I really can’t help but feel that we know so little about our new…teammate,” Commander Greyson entreated. 

“I understand your curiosity but,” Dr. Shik said as she turned the screen of her computer off, “this falls under doctor patient confidentiality.”

“I see,” Commander Greyson said. 

“Is there another reason you came down here Commander?” Dr. Shik asked.

“Yes, I wanted to know if my squads yearly checkups were still on schedule, what with the repairs still going on and such,” Commander Greyson said. 

“Yes, they are,” Dr. Shik responded.

“Good,” Commander responded stiffly as she turned back towards the door but paused for a moment longer, “you know, loyalty is a hard thing to find. I do hope that anyone on this ship would report it if they found something that would endanger our mission.”

“Of course, I feel the same way,” Dr. Shik replied, her voice tight. 

Dr. Shik sank back into her chair as Commander Greyson’s footsteps grew fainter. She had to let the rest of the Brigade know about this. Knuckleheads that they were, they would know how to prepare for what was coming. 

Haave tossed yet another computer server into bin beside him. It was slow going, checking each one to see if there was any salvageable data inside them, but so far he hadn’t found much. At least he had found the data from his scan of Strive. Haave shifted uncomfortably as he wondered what to do with it. Perhaps he should hand it over to Dr. Shik and leave it at that. Or perhaps he should hand it over to Strive and apologize for taking the scan in the first place. Haave’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door to his lab sliding open. 

“Haave Hogan. You’re up rather late,” Commander Greyson said. 

Haave paused for a moment before answering. He wasn’t positive but he though he detected a note of surprise in her voice. Was she hoping to enter the lab while he was gone? 

“There is m-uch to be done” Haave replied as he gestured at the piles of servers around him.

“I can see that. It is a shame that Command doesn’t have a more efficient motherboard computer for you to store your data on. Then you wouldn’t have to resort to such a primitive method of storage,” Commander Greyson said as she sidled over and nudged one of the servers with the tip of her boot. 

“Yes, that would have been con-venient,” Haave said. 

“I don’t suppose you’ve found any salvageable data?” Commander Greyson asked. 

“V-ery little,” Haave replied. 

“A shame. You have some of the best scanners on the ship. Well, either way, I look forward to seeing any data you have to share,” Commander Greyson said before spinning on her heels and exiting the lab. 

Haave paused before returning to his work. That settled things. The scan data would be safer with Dr. Shik then with Strive. He would still have to figure out a way to apologize to him though. 

“So Commander Greyson has been sneaking around?” Commander Meouch asked. 

“That’s the word from Dr. Shik and Haave,” Doctor Sung replied.

Commander Meouch thought for a moment, running his hand through his mane.

“I’m going to take Strive with me for a couple of days. I’ll take him planet side and give him a crash course on basic training. That should neutralize some of the complaints that Commander Greyson has raised. In the meantime, you need find out what kind of case she’s trying to build and make sure she doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” Meouch commanded. 

“Yes sir. Brian will help as well, right Brian?” Doctor Sung replied.

Commander Meouch spun around to find Space Ninja Brian, as usual, standing directly behind him. One of these days this wasn’t going to surprise him. Today was not that day.


	26. Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commander Meouch and Strive arrive at the training grounds and Commander Meouch makes a startling realization about Strive's species.

Strive was careful to fly his ship close to Commander Meouch’s ship. He was thrilled to have his ship back and, if it he was allowed, would have zoomed ahead in a heartbeat. But Commander Meouch had ordered him to stay close before takeoff. However, despite the forced slower pace, Strive was still excited. He knew that Commander Meouch was taking him planet side for training but still it was the first planet he would ever set foot on, besides his own of course. Although he was a little nervous as well. Commander Meouch had been rather vague on what exactly this training entailed.

“Hey kid,” Commander Meouch’s comm screen lit up on Strive’s dash, “take a look on your left. That’s our destination.”

Strive’s head quickly swiveled to the left and he could a planet in the distance. It was small at the moment, a small purple marble that was streaked with narrow stripes of blue-grey. As they got closer and the planet grew in Strive’s windshield Strive could make out clusters of lights on the surface below.

“Commander Meouch, is this planet inhabited?” Strive asked.

“It is, but the training grounds are located in a rather remote area and is designated as private property belonging to Command. So, it’s unlikely we’ll have any contact with the locals,” Commander Meouch explained.

“Oh,” Strive replied.

“Perhaps another time. We may even have time to explore once your training is completed,” Commander Meouch said, sensing Strive’s disappointment, “Now stay close. It’s time to land.”

Within minutes Strive brought his ship down in a field of ankle high purple grass. Off in the distance he could see a one story house of some sort. To the left he could a thick forest that gave off a rather foreboding air. To the right he could see more of the field but he could also see what looked to be humanoid figures standing in it.

“Commander Meouch,” Strive asked as he jogged to catch up to him, his bag slung across his back, “what are those figures in the field? I though you said we wouldn’t be meeting the locals?”

“Those are just targets Strive. They aren’t alive,” Commander Meouch explained.

“Targets?” Strive asked.

“Yes. Your training will consist of three parts. In the morning we will begin with flight training. You need more control over your ship and we also need to find out if your ship can manifest any weapons of any sort. Secondly I will be training you in basic self-defense and I will teach you how to use a basic laser gun, hence the targets. Lastly, you will run the track each afternoon before night fall,” Commander Meouch said.

“The track?” Strive asked.

“It’s a trail through the woods over there,” Commander Meouch said, pointing at the forest that Strive had spotted earlier, “your training will be officially over when you can run it in under 15 minutes.”

“Really?” Strive asked, one eyebrow raised.

“Yes, the track is probably the most important piece of training you will receive. Any other questions?” Commander Meouch asked.

“Yes, what did you mean by morning?” Strive asked.

Commander Meouch stopped so quickly that Strive almost ran into him. Slowly, he turned to face Strive.

“Morning…you know… when the sun lights up the sky for hours?” Commander Meouch said.

“Oh that. Is that really long here? My father told me that back home, well before all of the stars were stolen, the sky would get all light for about an hour but then it would get dark and we could see the stars again,” Strive said.

“Is that…so,” Commander Meouch replied.

“Yeah. He said some of the villagers thought it was really pretty and would stay up to watch it but almost everyone slept straight through it,” Strive continued.

“Then how did everyone know when to sleep? Wait where did you get your light from?” Commander Meouch asked in confusion.

“The stars mostly but we had our light crystals if we needed something brighter. And the crystals would grow dim when it was time to sleep. Wait a second,” Strive’s ears swiveled backwards at his realization, “do you guys…stay awake while it’s light out and sleep through the STARS?”

“Erm…yes. In fact most of the species I’ve met do exactly that,” Commander Meouch explained.

“But that’s terrible! How could they miss out on the stars?!” Strive cried out.

“Well I’m not saying all species, besides yours, do this. Yours is just the first I’ve met that is, apparently, partially nocturnal. I think,” Commander Meouch said, “and with that said I think I’m going to have to change the hours of our training schedule. Being out in the sun might be rather uncomfortable for you if your species isn’t built for it. Wait, how do you feel about the lights on Command?”

“They’re very annoying and hurt my eyes sometimes,” Strive said, slightly annoyed.

“Hm, well I can’t do anything about most of the lights on Command but maybe I can get the lights in our quarters changed to something a little more comfortable for you. Now let’s get a move on so we can unpack before we… go to sleep, I suppose,” Commander Meouch said.

With that Commander Meouch started back towards the house with Strive jogging once more to keep up. 


	27. First Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive makes his first attempt at running the track.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait on this one. Life got a little crazy for a week. I promise I'm not dead!

Strive groaned as he looked up at the starry night sky. Normally he would be enjoying the view but the multiple bruises that were currently covering his body were preventing that. Commander Meouch had said that he wanted to do some sparring so he could determine Strive’s current level of skill but apparently his skill level was zero as every match had ended with Strive on his back. Suddenly, Commander Meouch’s blue furry face filled his vision.

“I think that’s enough sparring for now,” Commander Meouch said as he extended his hand.

“Does that mean we’re finished?” Strive asked as Commander Meouch pulled him to his feet.

“No, you still have to run the track,” Commander Meouch replied.

“Oh. Right,” Strive groaned.

Strive followed Commander Meouch to the edge of the forest. The black trees loomed above him with spike like protrusions growing from their trunks. Commander Meouch stopped beside a pair of trees that had grown together to form a sort of entry way.

“The path through the woods has been marked with bioluminescent trail markers so you’ll be able to find your way,” Commander Meouch said, “for now, don’t worry to much about your time. Just try and familiarize yourself with the trail.”

“Okay,” Strive said as he took a deep breath, “here I go.”

Strive nervously picked his way through the forest breathing a sigh of relief each time he spotted another glowing marker. The so-called trail was narrow and frequently obscured by branches. Strive let out a squeak of surprise as his foot slipped on yet another slanted stone that seemed to line the path. He tried to breath deeply. He could do this. The other brigade members did this and so could he.

Finally, the path widened and Strive quickened his pace, hoping the end was in sight but instead the path opened to the shore of a lake. Strive paused and looked from left to right. Had he taken a wrong turn? He couldn’t see another marker anywhere. Maybe he should just turn around. Surely Commander Meouch would understand if he explained he just got lost. Then Strive heard it. An eerie scraping noise, like a chorus of grinding bones. He had to go. He had to leave. He had to escape. But where? The lake.

His heart racing Strive threw himself into the lake and swam for his life. The water was freezing but in his panic he barely noticed. Strive wasn’t the strongest swimmer out of his group of friends back home but at that moment he would have left them in the dust. Reaching the other side Strive hauled himself out of the lake, shaking as water cascaded from his hair. But then the shrill chorus started again and he sprinted for the forest. The thorns snagged and tore at his clothes and hair. The lower overhanging branches reached and grabbed at his hair but Strive continued to barrel through the woods. Then he spotted it. A blue marker, glowing with a soft light. He raced towards it. And then the next. And then another until he burst through the tree line and landed at Commander Meouch’s feet.

“Forty-five minutes. That’s not bad for a first time. Wait… why are you shivering? Strive, why are you wet?” Commander Meouch asked with concern.

“There was a lake. And… and there was a noise. I got scared and… and…” Strive gasped.

“And you swam across the lake?” Commander Meouch said incredulously.

Strive only nodded as his shivering increased. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he was starting to feel the cold night air.

“Wow…I think you might be the first person to swim the lake. That’s impressive,” Commander Meouch replied.

“But I couldn’t find the trail once I reached it,” Strive said.

“That’s part of the challenge. But I do promise the trail does continue around the lake,” Commander Meouch said.

“What about the noise?” Strive nervously asked.

“I can’t tell you what it was, that is also part of the challenge, but I promise you that this forest is perfectly safe. Now,” Commander Meouch said as he reached down and, with a quick tug, pulled a small twig out of Strive’s hair, “let’s get you inside dried off. You’ve had a long day.”


	28. Ninja Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Space Ninja Brian sneaks around.

“Okay Brian, we know Commander Greyson has been looking into Strive,” Doctor Sung said.

“…” Space Ninja Brain replied.

“The trick is, figuring out how much she knows and what she plans to do with it,” Doctor Sung continued as he paced the Brigade’s living quarters, “and to do that we need to get in her office. This will be difficult but I think we can pull it off, now there are several different ways we could do this…”

As Doctor Sung continued his scheming, Space Ninja Brain had already moved away. Doctor Sung wasn’t bad at planning but, really, there were far simpler ways to break into the Commander’s office. To tell the truth there wasn’t a single room onboard Command that he couldn’t get into.

Space Ninja Brian wandered through the hallways, turned a corner, and, to the views of the cameras at least, simply vanished. Now, a great many modifications had been made to cruise ship when it had become the new base of operations for Command but that didn’t change the fact that it used to be a cruise ship. And that meant it was built for the comfort of its passengers. And that meant it had exceptionally large vents.

Space Ninja Brian slunk carefully through the vents. He had to bend over slightly but that was no big deal. His feet barely made a sound as he navigated his way across the ship. The moment he had settled down on Command he had made it his business to know every inch of the ship. The rest of his team members hadn’t seen him for a solid week while he explored. So, if anyone had been watching him, they wouldn’t have been surprised to see that it took him no time at all to arrive at the vent that ran above Greyson’s office.

Space Ninja Brian was lucky. Commander Greyson wasn’t in. Brian pulled a small screwdriver out of his belt and quickly opened up the vent cover. Brian slid into the office, recovering the screws along the way, and made his way over to Greyson’s desk. Now, he knew that Greyson wasn’t stupid enough to leave important files directly on her computer, but he also knew she was very organized. He made his way over to her desk and knocked quietly on the side and grinned under his mask when he heard a small echo. Running his fingers along the seam he found a small latch and popped open the secret compartment. Inside he found a small drawer with several flash drives inside. He took the one with the nearest date and made his way back to the vent cover. In no time at all he was back in the Brigade’s living quarters.

“Maybe one of us should pretend to be ill, that will draw her out of her office long enough for one of us to search her office,” Doctor Sung said, obviously unaware that he had even left.

“…” Space Ninja Brian said holding up the flash drive.

“Where did you get that?” Doctor Sung asked.

“…” Space Ninja Brian said.

“When did you get that?” Doctor Sung asked.

“…” Space Ninja Brian said.

“Is that from Commander Greyson’s office?” Doctor Sung asked.

“…” Space Ninja Brian said.

“Right. We’d better get this to Haave. See what he can find,” Doctor Sung said.

“…” Space Ninja Brian said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a special request to draw a scene from the last chapter. Here is Strive with wet hair [ Here ](https://baykitthings.tumblr.com/post/613259557054119936/decided-to-draw-a-scene-from-my-fic-the-ballad)


	29. The Trees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive makes a discovery

How, Commander Meouch thought as another ping rang out across the field. It had taken days for him to teach Strive even the most basic of fighting stances and he still suspected that it would take years before he could even call him proficient. But, just a few days with a ray gun and Strive was hitting every target on the training field with ease. It’s like he was made for this. Strive rushed over to Commander Meouch, his gun properly holstered and a smile plastered on his face.

“Commander! Did you see that?” Strive asked, practically bouncing out of his skin.

“I did. That was very well done,” Commander Meouch replied, “now we have one last thing to do before we end for the…night.”

Strive immediately stopped bouncing.

“The track,” Strive mumbled.

“The sooner you start, the sooner it will be over,” Commander Meouch said.

Strive slowly nodded and unbuckled his holster and handed it back to Commander Meouch. Commander Meouch nodded in approval, Strive had remembered that he wasn’t allowed to keep the gun on him until he passed the gun handlers test back on Command. They trudged across field to the start of the track in silence. Strive hesitated at the starting point.

“Commander Meouch, can I ask a question?” Strive said.

“Of course,” Commander Meouch said.

“Which Brigade member has the fastest time through the track?” Strive asked.

“Haave, if you can believe it,” Commander Meouch explained.

“Haave?” Strive said in disbelief.

“Yes, he made it from the starting point to the finishing point in five minutes on his second try,” Commander Meouch said.

“How?!” Strive cried.

“I’m not positive, but considering all of the crashing noises I heard I believe he charged straight through,” Commander Meouch said.

Strive giggled slightly at that, straightened his shoulders and headed into the track.

Strive tried to focus on his breathing as he made his way through the track. This was his eighth time running the track but the woods still made his heart race. He picked his way through the trees as quickly as he could, knowing it was only a matter of time before the noise began. This time, when he reached the lake, he turned left and made his way around the lake.

When he was about half way around the lake he could feel it. The vibration started in his bones long before he heard the noise. The vibration only grew, spreading through his body until the horrible screech reached his ears. Shaking, Strive clamped his hands over his ears as he tried to remember where the next marker was.

Stumbling through the woods, Strive made his way from marker to marker until a stray stone in his path caused him to tumble. Laying face first in the dirt, Strive flipped himself over to look at the sky hoping for some comfort. That was when he saw it. The branches of trees above him rubbing against each other. Slowly, Strive rose to his feet and pressed his hand against the trunk of one of the trees. It was vibrating. A vibration that was that was rising up from the roots of the tree, maybe even from the planet itself, spreading through the trunk and causing the branches of the trees to scrape together. And the bark of the trees was so hard…that must be what was causing the noise! Strive gave a small sigh of relief, things were a little less scary when you knew what was causing them, he thought to himself. Maybe he would ask Commander Meouch more about the vibrations when he finished the track.


	30. The Drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doctor Sung and Haave Hogan investigate Commander Greyson's flash drive.

“Any luck with the drive, Haave?” Doctor Sung said.

“Just a moment Doc-tor,” Haave replied.

Doctor Sung paced back and forth across Haave’s room. There wasn’t much room as Haave had moved most of his equipment in here while his lab was being repaired. Space Ninja Brian had solved this issue by perching on top of one piece of equipment, a computer tower maybe?

“Got it,” Haave said.

Haave’s screen lit up, showing several neatly organized files. Haave started clicking through them, faster than Doctor Sung could read any of them, before closing them one by one.

“So?” Doctor Sung asked, “does she have anything?”

“She has in-terviews with crew members. Mostly a-bout the pil-ot. She has Pro-fessor Rim’s analysis on the cry-stals. And a formal request to the Major to suspend St-rive’s status as a bri-gade member,” Haave answered.

“Suspend his status? That’s not good. That status is the only protection Strive has, if he loses that Commander Meouch won’t be able to protect him from whatever she has planned next,” Doctor Sung muttered to himself, “Professor Rims analysis, does it show any connection between the crystals and Strive?”

“Nothing con-crete,” Haave replied.

“And she doesn’t have any medical records for Strive, that’s good at least. Still, we can’t let her send this in,” Doctor Sung said, “Haave? Can you leave a little present for the Major when he opens it? I know he’s bit… sick of all of the complaints she’s sent in before.”

“Yes s-ir,” Haave replied as his typing resumed.

“Brian, I assume you can return this without trouble? And please, no leaving any presents Commander Greyson no matter how tempted you are. This only works if she doesn’t know we took it in the first place,” Doctor Sung said.

Space Ninja Brian didn’t reply but Doctor Sung assumed he agreed with him. It wasn’t well known around the ship, but Brian was a bit of a prankster. Although the only reason this wasn’t well know was because no one had managed to catch him in the act. In fact, the only reason Doctor Sung knew was because Brain was nice enough to make sure he was present to see the prank take effect. Or perhaps he did that to make the rest of the crew suspect that he was the prankster, he was never quite sure about that. But nonetheless, he was sure that Brian knew this was too important to risk with a petty prank.

Haave finished his typing and handed the drive back to Space Ninja Brian. Brain hopped off of the computer tower and slid silently out of the room. Creeping through the vents and back to Commander Greyson’s office took no time at all. After placing the drive back into secret compartment and climbing back into the vent, he paused. No, he decided, he would wait for a bit.

He didn’t have to wait long. 15 minutes after he returned the drive Commander Greyson returned to her office. Under her arm was a special delivery box, one designed to stay locked until it was in the Major’s hands. She scanned the office and, finding nothing out of place apparently, opened the secret compartment and retrieved the drive. Once the drive was properly locked and sealed, she walked to the small transporter that was installed in the wall and sent it off to the mail room. It would be a day or two before it reached the Major, but now it was on the way and the Commander was none the wiser about what she had really sent him.

Space Ninja Brain leaned against the wall of the vent. He could wait a bit longer. Commander Greyson was a busy lady and it was only a matter of time before she was called away again. And now that the drive was sent, Doctor Sung’s warning was null and void. He fiddled with the cap on his spray can. Now he got to be petty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god, I actually reached 30 chapters. How long is this going to be? I have no idea...


	31. Harmony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive has another realization.

Strive took a deep breath, preparing to run the track once more. Although he had still failed to manifest a weapon on his ship, Commander Meouch had still seemed pleased with progress in flight training this morning. The Commander had also proclaimed him beyond his skill level to train any further with fire arms. And he was pretty sure he was progressing in the hand to hand combat training. Pretty sure at least. That just left the track and, try as he might, his time had barely improved since he had figured the secret of the vibrations. Steeling himself, he entered the track.

He knew the markers by heart now. Straight ahead, a left, straight past the pond, another left, and straight to the exit. But it seemed, no matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t make it to the exit in under 15 minutes. The vibrations began once again, shaking his bones down to his very core. Strive knelt down on the ground, his hands over his ears. This shouldn’t be this hard. It was just a giant…loop. He had been running a giant loop. This entire time.

Strive stood up, his decision made. Commander Meouch hadn’t said this wasn’t allowed so he might as well try. He wasn’t at the lake yet but Strive turned left, away from the markers and into the woods. He had only run a few minutes and was starting to doubt himself when he spotted it. A glowing marker. The one right by the exit to be exact. Strive stumbled through the exit, almost crashing in to Commander Meouch.

“11 minutes,” Commander Meouch said as he checked his stopwatch, “well done Strive. You’ve successfully run the track.”

“I’m sorry,” Strive cried.

“For what?” Commander Meouch said, cocking his eyebrow.

“I…I didn’t run the whole track. I took a shortcut through the woods,” Strive stammered.

Commander Meouch chuckled and bent down to touch Strive’s shoulder.

“Strive, that was the point,” Commander Meouch said.

“The point?” Strive asked.

“Of running the track. You see, the brigade isn’t like other military units. We’re far too small and know far too little about our enemy. We can’t just follow orders, we have improvise and adapt. The track is meant to teach you that and I can see you’ve learned that lesson well,” Commander Meouch explained, “Strive, I am proud to say you’ve completed your training.”

“I have?” Strive said, “but my combat training…”

“Is something we can continue on Command. Now let’s get ready to take off, you’re not going to want to miss this,” Commander Meouch said.

“Miss what?” Strive asked as they headed off towards the house.

As they floated in orbit Strive drummed his fingers against his controls. Commander Meouch had said there was something up here worth seeing but they had been waiting for awhile now and nothing was happening. Strive activated his comm.

“Commander Meouch? What exactly am I looking for?” Strive asked.

“Just a second more, trust me it will be worth it,” Commander Meouch said.

Just as Strive was just about open his mouth when he heard it. First one note. And then another. Until there was an entire melody playing. A melody that was both beautiful and painful, tearing his very soul into pieces and rebuilding it in new and strange ways. It seemed to travel through his ship and into his very bones, but where was it coming from? Then, slowly, note by note, the melody died away.

“Commander Meouch,” Strive whispered.

“The name of this planet is Harmonious. The forest isn’t the only part of the planet that emits sound, there are hundreds of locations that do the same. No one knows how or even where the sound is coming from but, out here, we can hear all of them at once. Some scientists even theorize that this is the source of the Harmony of the Spheres,” Commander Meouch in a hushed tone. 

“You’re right, that was worth waiting for,” Strive said.

“I know. Now, lets go home,” Commander Meouch said with a grin.


	32. The Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commander Meouch meets with The Major

As Strive and Commander Meouch landed in the hanger Strive could see Lord Phobos, Doctor Sung, Space Ninja Brian and Haave Hogan all waiting for them. As Strive exited his ship they all started applauding him.

“Hey! There’s our favorite cadet!” Doctor Sung proclaimed.

“I’m your only cadet,” Strive laughed.

“Besides the point!” Doctor Sung replied, “We haven’t seen the full report yet but Commander Meouch already told us you did exceptionally well on the track.”

“I did?” Strive asked.

“You bet kid,” Lord Phobos said, “It took me three solid months to figure it out.”

“Really?” Strive squeaked in surprise.

“Yeah, well,” Lord Phobos said as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, “I was trained as a military pilot. Going off book like that…it took me a while okay?”

Strive and the rest of the brigade laughed in reply and was about to return to their living quarters but their celebration was cut short.

“Commander Meouch! I require your presence in my office immediately,” a male voice said over the intercom.

“Who was that?” Strive asked nervously.

“The Major,” Commander Meouch replied, “I’ll handle this. I’ll meet you all back in our quarters.”

Strive looked like he was about to protest but Lord Phobos wrapped his arm around his shoulders and steered him away. Commander Meouch took a deep breath and followed an incredible familiar path up to the Major’s office. When he reached the office, he found Commander Greyson already sitting in one of the chairs. Behind the desk was the Major, a man in his fifties with tan skin, short salt and pepper hair and a full grey mustache. He wore an exhausted expression on his face.

“Commander Meouch, good of you to join us. Please, take a seat,” The Major said.

“Of course, Major,” Commander Meouch said as he took the seat opposite of Commander Greyson.

“I’ll get straight to the point so let’s not have any interruptions” the Major sighed, “Commander Greyson sent me a file three nights ago with what she claims included some important documents about your newest brigade member. What I received was this.”

The Major lifted a laptop up onto the desk and turned it so it was facing Commander Meouch and Commander Greyson. There was a video up on screen. The Major pressed play and a young, skinny, white human male danced onto screen and started singing ‘never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna turn around, desert you!” The Major pressed pause before continuing.

“Commander Greyson claims that the files were tampered with and she claims that your brigade members are responsible,” The Major said.

“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about this,” Commander Meouch said.

“Lies!” screamed Commander Greyson as she shot out of her seat, “You clearly ordered your brigade members to interfere with my investigation while you were off the ship!”

“SIT down Greyson,” The Major ordered, “Now I have had both of you in my office time and time again so I will ask the same question I always do. Commander Greyson, do you have any proof to back up your accusations?”

“After sending the files I left my office. When I returned, I found it desecrated with incredible offensive graffiti. It was clearly that ridiculous ninja of his,” Commander Greyson said, her arms crossed over her chest.

The Major sighed and rubbed his temples for a moment before replying.

“You found the graffiti after the files were sent? Not before or during?” The Major asked.

“Yes,” Commander Greyson replied.

“And nothing was caught on camera?” The Major asked.

“…No,” Commander Greyson said, deflating slightly.

“Then I’m afraid that isn’t evidence. I’m sure you know that similar graffiti tags have been found all over Command, including the brigade’s living quarters if I’m not mistaken, and we have no proof that it was Space Ninja Brian. Or anyone else for that matter. I will have this file thoroughly examined but until we have any proof that these accusations are true, I will not be taking any action against anyone. Commander Meouch, you may leave. Commander Greyson, I require your presence for a moment longer,” The Major ordered.

Commander Meouch stood, gave a slight salute, and then turned to leave but even with his back to her he could still feel Commander Greyson’s seething fury. He would have to tell the rest of the brigade to stay on high alert. But first, he would have to see if Space Ninja Brian had taken any photos of his handywork in Commander Greyson’s office. That, he was desperate to see.


	33. The Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Brigade learns a few things about Strive's home planet.

Commander Meouch returned the living quarters and walked straight into a wall of chatter. The rest of the brigade was grouped around the holo-table which was projecting an image of a small planet into the air.

“What’s going on here?” Commander Meouch asked.

“Oh, Commander. How did the meeting go?” Doctor Sung asked.

“The Major just had a few questions, nothing to be worried about,” Commander Meouch said, “So what’s all the excitement about?”

“Oh, right,” Doctor Sung said, “Well while you were gone, we realized Strive’s file had a few blanks in it. We’re trying to fill it in now.”

“I see. Which part are you on?” Commander Meouch asked as he sat down next to Lord Phobos.

“My age,” Strive mumbled.

“Oh,” Commander Meouch said, his eyebrows raised.

“We’ve already filled in a few things,” Lord Phobos said as he brought up Strive’s file on the holo-projector, “Since Command had only started exploring the area of space Strive’s planet in is we don’t have a lot of info, so Strive has to fill us in on the smaller details. Did he tell you that the name of his planet is ‘Moebius’?”

“No, he didn’t,” Commander Meouch replied.

“You never asked!” Strive protested.

“So would make that the name of your species Moebians?” Doctor Sung asked.

“I guess? I never heard of my people referred to as a species before,” Strive said.

“It’ll do for now,” Doctor Sung said, “anyways, while no explorers ever landed on Moebius, we do still have data from the deep space probs that passed through the area. And from that, we can estimate that, while Moebius’ orbit is about the same size as Earth’s, it was orbiting twice as fast. Strive, how many times had your planet completed it’s orbit when the Shards attacked?”

“Umm, ten times I think,” Strive replied.

“So that would make you around five in Earth years when the Shard’s attack happened…and we estimated your birthday is around March 14th…so that would make you 17 years old,” Doctor Sung concluded.

There was a beat of silence before the brigade dissolved into laughter.

“Oh man, I know we’ve been calling you kid but you actually are one!” Lord Phobos exclaimed.

“Is that young?!” Strive asked.

“You aren’t even old enough to drink!” Doctor Sung said.

“Drink what?” Strive asked.

“Oh man, Strive remind me to throw you a 21st birthday party. It will be so much fun, I promise,” Lord Phobos said.

“…Okay?” Strive said.

As the brigade fell into another round of laughter Commander Meouch began to relax. He wasn’t sure what tomorrow would bring but for now, all was well.


	34. A New Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Major has a mission for the Brigade

Commander Meouch quickly made his way to the Major’s office. It had only been two days since he had met the Major and Commander Greyson in this office and he’d be lying if he said that being called there again so soon afterwards wasn’t making him nervous. But, as the doors to the Major’s office slid open, Commander Meouch saw that he was alone with the Major.

“Commander Meouch, thank you for responding to my summons so quickly. Please, take a seat,” the Major said.

Commander Meouch sat down, rather stiffly, in the chair directly across from the Major’s desk.

“So, I hear that your young cadet’s training is still going smoothly,” the Major said.

“Ah, yes sir, it is,” Commander Meouch said as he wondered why the Major was asking about this, “he is quite capable with a ray gun. I only wish he was showing more progress in the hand to hand combat area.”

“Hmm, tell me Commander, has Strive finished growing? I mean to say, has he reached his adult size for his species?” the Major asked.

“I did ask him about that. He said that he was about the same size as the adults in his village so, yes. We don’t expect him to do much more growing, if any,” Commander Meouch said.

“Then perhaps trying out a different fighting style would be beneficial. After all, the traditional military fighting techniques that you and I were taught were created by species that are a tad on the larger size, compared to your cadet anyways,” the Major said.

“That could be helpful, thank you for the suggestion sir,” Commander Meouch replied.

“Now, I’m afraid I didn’t actually call you down here for a discussion of your cadet. I have a mission for the brigade,” the Major said.

The Major slid open a compartment in the top of his desk and a holo-crystal rose into the air. The major punched a code into his computer and the hologram of a large carrier ship was projected into the air.

“This carrier ship was carrying replacement equipment for the labs that were destroyed in…recent events. However, a conflict arose between two planets on their original route and they were forced to take a route along the edge of the Messier 63 galaxy,” the Major explained, “And as you know, since the original Shard attacks the Messier 63 galaxy has become a hot spot for pirate activity.”

“They were attacked?” Commander Meouch asked.

“Yes,” the Major replied, “Luckily these pirates allowed the crew to leave in the escape pods but they still have our equipment. We need to recover it before they sell it and it ends up who knows where.”

The major deactivated the holo-crystal and the compartment in his desk closed. The Major then slid a small flash drive to Commander Meouch.

“These are the last known coordinates of the ship. I’ll leave the choosing of the team up to you, of course, but I was hoping you could spare Space Ninja Brian. He’s had success with missions like this in the past. And… perhaps someone _fast _would be an asset the mission. It is of utmost importance we get that equipment back as soon as possible,” the Major said.

“Yes, sir,” Commander Meouch said as he ran his fingers across the flash drive, “I understand.”


	35. The Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive is given his first mission with Space Ninja Brian

Strive sat, curled up, on one of the couches that surrounded the holo-table. In his hands was a small tablet that Doctor Sung had given him the day before. It used to belong to Doctor Sung but Sung had said he had gotten a new one lately and that Strive could keep his old one. The tablet was chock full of different books, shows and movies that the tablet accessed from Command’s digital library and Doctor Sung had taken the time to show Strive how to search for anything that might interest him. However, Strive was much more interested in the scene across the table from him.

A few minutes ago Space Ninja Brian had sat down across the table from Strive and placed a steaming hot cup of coffee on the table in front of him. It occurred to Strive that, since he had joined the brigade, he had never seen Space Ninja Brian’s face. But to drink the coffee he surely had to remove his mask, right? And, since he had sat down, Brian hadn’t made any movement to ask Strive to leave so surely he didn’t mind taking his mask off in front of Strive. So now Strive sat, quickly flicking his eyes between Brian and his tablet as he tried to disguise his interest in seeing his face for the first time. Then, as he focused his eyes back on Space Ninja Brian, Strive noticed something. The cup in front of him was no longer steaming. Strive straighten in his seat to see that the coffee in the cup was gone. He struggled to keep the dismay from reaching his face. Had he somehow missed it? In the seconds he had been looking at the tablet had Brian somehow downed the entire cup of hot coffee? Strive’s train of thought was interrupted by Commander Meouch’s return.

“Commander,” Doctor Sung said as he poked his head out of his room, “I see you’ve survived another meeting with the Major.”

“I did and he even has a mission for us,” Commander Meouch replied.

At that statement Doctor Sung, Haave Hogan and Lord Phobos emerged from their rooms and joined Strive and Space Ninja Brian at the holo-table. With a hard look from Commander Meouch, Space Ninja Brian quietly removed his coffee cup from the table. Commander Meouch gave a nod of approval and inserted a flash drive into the holo-table and the image of a large carrier ship was projected into the air.

“This is the carrier ship that was carrying the replacement equipment for our lab. It’s called the Atlas. Unfortunately it was waylaid by space pirates in the Messier 63 galaxy,” Commander Meouch explained.

“What was it doing there?” Lord Phobos asked.

“I’m afraid it wasn’t given much choice. Fortunately the crew was allowed to escape unharmed. Unfortunately our lab is still in desperate need of that equipment. I’m assigning this mission to Space Ninja Brian and Strive,” Commander Meouch continued.

“Me?” Strive asked.

“Yes, you. Is this a problem?” Commander Meouch asked.

“No sir,” Strive replied, shrinking back slightly.

Commander Meouch paused for a moment before giving a slight nod and continuing.

“You will both be riding in Strive’s ship. I’ll be supplying you with a cloaking device you can plug into your ship the same way you installed the Shard tracking equipment. This should keep you off of any radar the pirates may have. You will dock in the docking bay. Strive you will stay with the ship in case the need of an emergency exit arises and Space Ninja Brian will retrieve the equipment. Your focus is this crate that should be located here,” Commander Meouch said as a small red dot appeared on the map of the ship, “The crate is equipped with anti-gravity propulsers so you shouldn’t have any trouble moving it. Before exiting the carrier you are to plant this tracking device on the carrier. After you are safely out of range, Command will deploy a larger fleet to retrieve the rest of the shipment. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir,” Strive replied.

Space Ninja Brian only nodded.

“Good. I will meet you both in the hanger in twenty minutes,” Commander Meouch said.

Strive got up from his seat and headed towards his room to store his tablet. As the doors closed behind him Doctor Sung turned to Commander Meouch.

“Are you sure he’s ready for this?” Doctor Sung asked.

“He’s going to have to be. Things are moving fast, I can feel it. We’re running out of opportunities to prepare him for whatever is coming,” Commander Meouch sighed.

“I see, oh and Brian,” Doctor Sung said as he looked at the puddle of still steaming brown liquid on the floor, “are you going to want another cup of coffee before you leave?”


	36. The Atlas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive and Space Ninja Brian approach the Atlas.

Strive nervously climbed into his ship, the cloaking device and the thumb drive clutched tightly to his chest. As he approached the control panel, he was surprised to find that there was already an open slot waiting for him.

“Oh, were you waiting for me?” Strive whispered.

Strive stiffened slightly, and then turned slowly to Space Ninja Brian standing behind him.

“Oh…um…do you ever talk to your ship?” Strive asked.

“…” Space Ninja Brian said.

“I mean… mine is just so responsive. I really feel like she’s listening to me sometimes,” Strive explained.

“…” Space Ninja Brian said.

“Right, I’m just going to go plug this in,” Strive said.

Strive quietly plugged the cloaking device into the panel and then inserted the flash drive. A hologram showing the route Commander Meouch had planned for them was projected into the air.

“Uh, so with my ship’s speed it looks like it will take a few hours for us to reach the ship,” Strive said, “Uh, I’ve never had a passenger on my ship before. Do you need a chair or anything?”

Space Ninja Brian shook his head no.

“Oh, okay then,” Strive said.

Strive gently placed his hands on the controls and the ship purred to life. The blue glow snaked through the ship until it reached the engine. Strive raised his hands and the ship responded in kind by slowly rising off the ground. Then he pointed both of his hands straight forwards and the ship rocketed off into space.

The next few hours passed in awkward silence. Strive tried to focus on the route ahead of him but he could feel Space Ninja Brian’s gaze on his back. How was he supposed to talk to him? The other brigade members never seemed to have any trouble communicating with Brian but he couldn’t remember having a single conversation with him. But before he could stew over the matter for too long, the Atlas came into view.

“Uh, turning on the cloaking device now,” Strive said.

Strive tapped a few keys and the cloaking device began to hum slightly.

“Is it working?” Strive asked.

Strive felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Space Ninja Brian standing directly behind him. Space Ninja Brian gave him a stiff nod.

“Ah. Okay. If you say so,” Strive said, “Onwards then.”

Strive slowed his ship as they approached. According to Commander Meouch’s blueprints the docking bay was supposed to be on the lower levels of the ship but it hadn’t specified how they were supposed to get in. But as he slowly approached the docking bay, he could see that in place of the docking bay doors was instead a gaping hole.

“I guess that solves that problem,” Strive said.

The ship easily slipped into the docking bay and Strive set it down next what he assumed was the remains of a jump ship.

“So, what now?” Strive asked.

Space Ninja Brian paused a moment and then pulled a square shaped device out of one of the control panel. He affixed the device to his chest and pressed the center button. A light blue force field spread across his body until he was covered completely.

“The space walk suit? I mean that will give you oxygen and some warmth but it doesn’t offer much shielding…wait. Are you planning on retrieving the crate on your own?!” Strive cried.

The corners of Space Ninja Brian’s eyes crinkled slightly in amusement and reached over to ruffle Strive’s hair. Then he stood up straight, squared his shoulders, and gave his left pec a light punch.

“I know, I know you’re tough. You all are. You’re asking me to stay here aren’t you,” Strive said.

Space Ninja Brian gave a firm nod.

“Fine. But if you take too long, I’m coming after you, okay?” Strive said.

The corners of Space Ninja Brian’s eyes crinkled again but he gave Strive another nod. Then he turned and headed for the door.


	37. Into the Vents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Space Ninja Brian infiltrates the vents

Space Ninja Brian pushed off the edge of Strive’s ship and floated into the debris field that covered most of the docking bay. Carefully, he angled his body towards the nearest piece of debris and then pushed off of that piece of debris as well. He continued to make his way across the docking bay in this manner. He did have ways of propelling himself across the room that were much faster, but this way was much quieter.

Finally, he reached the door that led to the rest of the ship but was unsurprised to find that the access panel had been destroyed. He scanned the walls around him and easily found the intake vent. Now he was in his element. Pushing off of another piece of debris Space Ninja Brian floated up to the vent. Taking out his screwdriver he carefully removed the vent cover and pulled himself inside the vent.

About two meters into the ventilation shafts the artificial gravity kicked back in and Space Ninja Brian had to catch himself on the edges of the shaft to stop himself from crashing into the bottom of the shaft. A little more carefully, he continued along the shaft until he heard voices up ahead. He held very still and pressed his ear against the bottom of the vent as the voices approached.

“I don’t get it, Mik,” the first voice said, “Why did the boss want to go after this carrier ship anyways? I mean the provisions are nicer than the ones we usually steal but nothing else seems all that valuable."

“Well, the boss said he had a tip and he’s never been wrong before,” Mik said.

“I guess,” the first voice replied.

“And besides, we haven’t gone through all of the crates yet. I’m sure we’ll find something good. And if all else fails we can always scrap the ship,” Mik continued.

“Do you really think we’ll have time for that? Some of those crates were marked for Command. It’s only a matter of time before they come after their supplies,” the first voice said.

“That’s true…maybe we should have kept the crew as hostages after all,” Mik responded, “But, hey, don’t worry about Jem. I’ll watch your back. We’ll be out of here before you know it.”

“Thanks Mik, I guess I’m just a little anxious. Let’s head back to cargo bay 2 and help everyone with these crates,” Jem said.

Space Ninja Brain waited until their footsteps faded before he continued his way through the vents. Commander Meouch’s blueprints had placed the crate he was looking for in cargo bay 3. It seemed like the pirates were working their way through the cargo bays one at a time, so hopefully that meant that his crate was currently untouched. But it sounded like the pirates had also noticed that at least part of the shipment was for Command and that had put them on edge. Which meant he had to hurry.

Strive sat quietly in his ship, his back pressed up against the control panel and his legs pulled up against his chest. It was quiet on the ship, to quiet. He knew that it would take no effort at all to reach out into the void and speak to the stars he knew were just beyond the barrier of steel. But he also remembered how his ship had started to shine when he had spoken to the stars before and he wasn’t sure if Command’s cloaking technology was up to covering up that. Strive let out a small sigh.

“What do you think ship? Do you think he’s going to be okay?” Strive asked.

His ship let out a small vibrating purr that Strive felt travel along his spine.

“He seemed pretty confident. And I’m sure we’d know if something went wrong, I mean this ship is full of pirate’s right? They wouldn’t be quiet if they found an intruder, right?” Strive mused.

His ship let out another purr, this one deeper than the first.

“Yeah, I’m worried too. But this is my first mission, and I can’t afford to mess up. I have to give him some time,” Strive said.

His ship purred yet again, gentle and soothing.

“Thanks. I’m glad you’re here with me,” Strive said.

  
  



	38. The Cargo Bay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Space Ninja Brian searches for the target crate.

Space Ninja Brian exited the ventilation shafts in cargo bay three. He paused to a moment, straining his ears for any sound. He had to stop himself from releasing a sigh of relief. There was no trace of the pirates here and the crates were unopened. Space Ninja Brian rummaged through pockets and pulled out a small barcode scanner. He knew the general location of crate but he would still need to sort through the crates to find the exact one he was looking for. Quiet as always, Space Ninja Brain slunk through the rows of crates in search of his target.

Space Ninja Brian was growing anxious. Finding the crate was taking too long. It hadn’t taken long at all for him to find the correct section but he hadn’t accounted for the sheer number of crates crammed into the section. Luckily, he knew he could ignore the larger crates. Commander Meouch hadn’t told them what it was they were recovering for obvious security reasons but it hadn’t been hard for Space Ninja Brian to figure out. When the crystals had destroyed a section of the ship, they had badly damaged one main computer’s processing units. Command could still run on the remaining units but it would still be at a dangerous disadvantage if forced to go into battle without it’s full processing power. So, it made sense that a new unit was put on rush order and it was actually a small enough piece of equipment that Space Ninja Brian could sneak out with it. But, even with all of this information, Space Ninja Brain was taking far too long to find this crate.

Finally, Space Ninja Brian felt the small vibration of affirmation from scanner that he had been waiting for. He looked down at the small crate, only about the size of shoebox, and lifted it up. It still had a bit of heft to it but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. However, it would be difficult to take it through the vents. He was going to have figure out another route through the ship. Perhaps he should bring Strive in on this part. He was no Haave, but perhaps he could manage a scan of the ship to tell him where the pirates were located. He felt the soft buzz of his communicator against his hip and realized Strive must be checking on him. He’d have to let him know he was on his way back. Space Ninja Brian’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doors opening. Space Ninja Brain hunkered down against the crates. They couldn’t have found him already, could they?

“Celia, come on. We’ve got a few minutes,” a low male voice said.

“Are you sure? The captain will kill us if they find us slacking,” Celia said.

“We’ve been working through those crates for hours. I think we deserve a little…break,” the male voice purred.

As Space Ninja Brian listened to Celia giggle, he felt his face warm. Surely, they didn’t mean to? But as he heard the fwap of clothing hitting the ground his worst fears were realized. True, he hadn’t been discovered but he was well and truly trapped. Celia and her lover stood between him and both the ventilation shaft he had first come through and door they had come through. While he could start searching for a different exit he risked either being noticed by the pair or ending up in an even more dangerous part of the ship. The safest thing to do was wait. But nothing was going to stop him from hating every minute of it.

Strive couldn’t wait any longer. It had been far too long and Space Ninja Brian hadn’t responded to his hail over the communicator. He affixed the space walk suit to his chest and felt the force field spread across his body. He had watched Space Ninja Brian enter the ventilation system and had a pretty good idea which route he had taken. With any luck, he’d meet him in the middle. With one last deep breathe to steady himself, Strive stepped out into the cargo bay.


	39. Weightless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Space Ninja Brian finds himself with a new problem.

Why were they taking so long? Space Ninja Brian hadn’t exactly been watching the time but he felt like he had been listening to hours of the couple’s giggles and whispered declarations of love along with other noises he’d rather not relay. And yet, they showed no sign of slowing down. In fact, due to the dull thud he’d heard moments ago, he guessed that they had taken their business to the floor instead of up against the crates. Maybe he should start looking for that secondary ventilation shaft. Surely these two were too wrapped up in each other to notice him moving around. And besides that it was starting to get late and he didn’t want Strive making any stupid moves out of fear for his safety. Strive…wait…hadn’t he received a hail on his communicator before this started? Had Strive been checking in on him? Had he responded to that?

“WHAT IN THE BLAZES IS GOING ON IN HERE?!” a booming voice interrupted Space Ninja Brian’s train of thought.

“C…Captain,” Celia said.

Space Ninja Brain heard the sound of multiple legs scurrying across the metal floor making a grating melody that reminding him of overly aggressive wind chimes. Then the noise stopped all at once and Space Ninja Brain assumed that the Captain had spotted the pair in all their glory.

“Celia…Hazar…” The Captain hissed, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Um…well…” Hazar stammered, “It’s just…we’ve already gone through so many crates…and we thought… we could use a little break.”

“Oh, I see,” The Captain said, “A break. When we still have two cargo bays to search and the threat of Command coming to reclaim their cargo at any moment and you two thought you had the luxury of time for a BREAK?!”

At this the pair broke down into sobs and stammered begging for forgiveness. Space Ninja Brain almost felt sorry for them.

“SILENCE,” The Captain ordered.

The pair fell silent and the only sounds for the next few minutes were the occasional taps from the Captains legs and an occasional odd clicking noise.

“Rejoin the rest of the crew in Cargo Bay two. But don’t think this … conversation is over,” The Captain ordered.

There were mumbled thank yous and the padding sounds of still uncovered feet as Celia and Hazar left the cargo bay. Space Ninja Brain let out a silent exhale of the breath he had been holding. Now he just had to wait until the Captain left and he would be in the clear. Space Ninja Brain listened as the tapping of the Captain’s feet filled the air. But then they stopped. There was no swoosh of the cargo bay’s doors opening. What were they waiting for?

Then Space Ninja Brian felt the unnerving sensation of his body suddenly becoming weightless. Trying not to panic, Space Ninja Brian grabbed the crate before it floated out of his reach. Turning in the air Space Ninja Brian could see that all of the other crates had also been released from gravity’s hold and were now floating through the air. Someone must have turned off the gravity generator in cargo bay, but why?

As Space Ninja Brian twisted through the air to examine his surroundings he finally spotted him. A Sxlaxian man, with a humanoid torso and the lower body of a long black centipede with bright red legs, was staring up at him. His multiple legs had a firm hold on the railing of the platform, which kept him anchored to the ground. His face was mostly humanoid except for the pair of mandibles that were tapping together to make the clicking noise he had heard earlier. But the surprise of all of this was overridden by the terror Space Ninja Brian’s felt as his eyes focused on the large laser gun the Sxlaxian was pointing at his chest.

“I thought I heard a rat,” The Captain hissed as he took aim at Space Ninja Brian.

Strive was really getting worried. He was sure this was the route Space Ninja Brian had taken but he was nearly to the target spot and he still hadn’t run into him. Maybe he had been mistaken? Well, the exit was just ahead. If he didn’t find Space Ninja Brian at the target he’d assume he’d taken a different route back and turn around to meet him back at the ship. Strive was almost to exit when his body suddenly became weightless and he banged his head against the top of the vent. What was going on? Was the gravity generator in this cargo bay damaged? Maybe that was why Space Ninja Brian was delayed. It would take a lot longer to find the cargo is the cargo was floating around the bay. Well it would be a lot faster if Strive helped him look. Strive gripped the sides of the vent and pushed himself towards the exit.


	40. Zero Gravity Combat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive faces down the Captain.

Well this is bad, is all Space Ninja Brian had time to think before the heat of the laser gun burned into his shoulder, the force of the blast sending him careening into the floating crates that surrounded him. Space Ninja Brain grabbed on to a nearby crate to stop his spinning and tried to reorient himself. Turning back in the direction of the Captain, Space Ninja Brian found his view blocked by the floating crates. But he could see something else. Someone was coming out of the vent he had exited from. Someone with a very familiar poof of white hair. This just got even worse, Space Ninja Brian thought. Trying to focus through the pain Space Ninja Brian frantically looked around for anything that was anchored to the ground. Below him he found a crate that had been magnetically secured to floor, probably containing something fragile. It would have to do.

As Strive exited the vent the first thing he noticed was the cargo floating everywhere. That he expected. But then he turned and saw the massive Sxlaxian man with his even larger laser gun pointed towards the cargo bay. That was unexpected. But what was he aiming at? Strive scanned the cargo bay until he spotted a small glint of red. Floating through the air was a trail of small red droplets of blood that a spiraling trail that disappeared back into debris field of floating crates. Horror crept over Strive as he realized who had likely been shot. Still not noticing Strive the Sxlaxian man gave a grunt of annoyance and turned his attention to a large dial behind him. Slowly running through what Commander Meouch had taught him about larger ships Strive realized what the dial must be. It was the control dial for the gravity generator in this cargo bay. If he turned the gravity back on in this cargo bay Space Ninja Brian, if he was still alive, would likely be crushed.

Gripping the sides of the vent Strive launched himself in the cargo bay, aiming for the railing that surrounded the upper platform the Sxlaxian man was on. Grabbing on, Strive spun himself to face the Sxlaxian man while retrieving his laser gun from its holster at his side. With his back to him there was very little Strive could aim at that wasn’t covered in the Sxlaxian’s natural armored plates. That didn’t matter though, he just had to keep him from turning that dial. Strive took aim, and fired.

The Sxlaxian man roared and reared backwards in surprise as Strive’s shot made contact. He twisted around and, without even bothering to take stock of who was firing on him, fired his laser gun in Strives direction. Reflexively, Strive released his hold on the railing and floated out of the way of the blast. But Strive realized he had made mistake, for now he was floating, untethered, in the cargo bay. And he had no way of dodging another shot. Looking at the Sxlaxian man he knew he had come to the same conclusion as he took aim at Strive. Only to give another roar of surprise when a rather large crate came rocketing out of the cargo bay and collided with him, full force, in the chest.

Strive could only gape in surprise as the Sxlaxian’s unconscious body drifted through the air. Turning in the direction the crate had come from Strive spotted Space Ninja Brian making his way from crate to crate across the cargo bay, his injured shoulder still releasing a small trail of red beads into the air but otherwise appearing unharmed. He even had a small crate tucked under one arm.

Space Ninja Brian hadn’t been sure of the Captain’s exact position when he had braced himself against the tethered crate to launch the other, smaller crate at him but anything that might take his attention off of Strive would be a win at this point. He was actually rather pleased to find that, as he got a clearer view, he had apparently nailed the shot. Seeing Strive floating a short ways away he made his way over to him. Grabbing onto Strive, Space Ninja Brian gave one last kick that sent them drifting back towards the railing. As they got back to the railing Strive grabbed onto it and brought them both back to the floor. Space Ninja Brian motioned with his head towards the main exit. The vents, with his injured shoulder, were no longer an option. Nodding in understanding Strive started pulling them towards the exit. They were almost home free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We reached 40 chapters! When will it end? I have no idea...maybe at 70 chapters?


	41. Back to Command

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Space Ninja Brian and Strive head back to Command

As they exited the cargo bay Strive and Space Ninja Brian stumbled slightly as the gravity in the hallway was apparently still in full effect. After making sure the hallway was empty Strive turned to Space Ninja Brian.

“You’re hurt, let me see,” Strive whispered.

Space Ninja Brian startled slightly but shifted his grip on the crate so Strive could get a better view of his shoulder. Strive had to cover his mouth to stop himself from making any sounds of distress. The shot hadn’t gone all the way through his shoulder, probably because the zero gravity situation had allowed Space Ninja Brian’s body to move backwards with the shot, but was still a sizable wound, the edges of which were burned from the heat of the laser.

“Okay, okay,” Strive whispered.

Strive rummaged through his belt pouch before pulling out a small blue container.

“I’ve got the medi-patch here. I think this is enough to cover it and stop the bleeding. Uh, this is going to sting a bit,” Strive said.

Strive could swear he felt Space Ninja Brian roll his eyes at that but he ignored it. Opening the container he pulled out the cube of pale blue gel-like material. With slightly shaking fingers he flattened a thinned it until it formed a large circle. Carefully, he spread the material over Space Ninja Brian’s wound. He watched, slightly fascinated, as the gel turned a dark blue color, a signal that it had successfully cauterized and, hopefully, sterilized the wound. Strive marveled that Space Ninja Brian hadn’t uttered a sound through the whole process.

“Is that a little better?” Strive asked.

Space Ninja Brian gave a stiff nod.

“Can you still handle the crate?” Strive asked.

Space Ninja Brian paused, shifted the crate in his arms slightly, and then nodded again.

“Okay,” Strive said as he held up his laser gun in the ready position again, “I’ll take point then.”

Without waiting to see Space Ninja Brian’s response Strive moved to the edge of the hallway and started back towards the ship. Space Ninja Brian hefted the crate into a better position and started after him. Their trip back to the ship was mercifully uneventful. The Captain must have meant it when he said that the rest of the crew was being kept busy in the other cargo bays. As they approached the hanger they felt their bodies lighten, a sign of the hangers failed gravity generator. Silently, they both reactivated their spacewalk suits and Strive opened the door to the hanger. Strive took Space Ninja Brian’s hand and kicked off in the direction of his still cloaked ship.

If the cameras in the hanger had still been working, anyone watching would have witness the two of them slowly drifting through the hanger and then simply vanishing as the entered the ships cloaking field. Strive swung them off the edge of the ship and through the ships entrance, stumbling slightly less as they entered the ships gravity field. Without a word, Space Ninja Brian set the crate on the floor and sat down on top of it. Strive watched nervously for a second before walking over to the controls and setting their course back to Command.

The flight back was just as quiet as the first but now the silence seemed to weight even heavier on Strive. Commander Meouch and Lord Phobos was waiting for them in the docking bay as Strive brought his ship in for a landing. Space Ninja Brian exited first and immediately handed the crate to Commander Meouch. Commander Meouch took the crate but his eyes immediately focused on the medi-patch.

“He was shot,” Strive said before Commander Meouch could ask.

“I see,” Commander Meouch said, “Lord Phobos please escort Space Ninja Brian to Dr. Shik. And make sure he stays for the entirety of her treatment.”

Lord Phobos gave a thumbs up and then, taking Space Ninja Brian by his uninjured arm, started leading the obviously sulking ninja towards the medical bay. Commander Meouch turned back to Strive.

“How about you come with me down to the lab to drop this off and then we’ll sit down to fill out your portion of the report. I think I need to hear this entire story,” Commander Meouch said.


	42. The Observatory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Space Ninja Brian shows Strive a very special place on Command.

Strive sat on the couch in the brigades living quarters squirming nervously in his seat. Commander Meouch sat across from him reading over his mission report.

“So,” Commander Meouch said, “Space Ninja Brain failed to respond to your hail over the comms?”

“Yes,” Strive replied.

“And you confirmed injury before you engaged in combat?” Commander Meouch asked.

“Yes, I saw blood,” Strive said.

“Well, I still need to collect Space Ninja Brian’s statement but I’d have to say, well done,” Commander Meouch said.

“Sir?” Strive asked.

“You handled the situation well Strive, especially for a first mission. You retrieved your target and you brought back your teammate back in one piece. I already advised the Major to immediately move to recapture the Atlas. With any luck we can still get there before the Sxlaxian you fought gets the pirates to clear out,” Commander Meouch said.

“So, you think he’s alright?” Strive asked “Space Ninja Brian hit him with crate!”

“Yes…Sxlaxians are notoriously hard to kill. I have little doubt he’s still alive,” Commander Meouch said as he reached over to ruffle Strive’s hair, “Now get some rest. I’ll handle the rest of the paperwork.”

Strive dozed lightly in his window seat when he heard a light tapping sound filled the room. Blinking back sleep Strive looked around the room until his eyes focused the vent above his bed. The cover had been removed and Space Ninja Brian’s face was looking back at him.

“Brian?” Strive whispered, “What are you doing here? I thought Dr. Shik would have kept you overnight.”

“…” Space Ninja Brian said.

“Well I’m glad you’re feeling better, but you could have used the door,” Strive said.

“…” Space Ninja Brian said as he motioned for Strive to join him.

“Oh, okay. If you say so,” Strive said.

Strive kicked the blankets off his legs and shimmied up the bedpost and crawled into the vent behind Space Ninja Brian. Strive noticed that Space Ninja Brian’s arm was in a sling.

“Are you sure you’re okay to be climbing around in here?” Strive asked.

“…” Space Ninja Brain said.

“Okay,” Strive said.

Strive followed Space Ninja Brian through the vents taking so many turns he wasn’t sure where on Command he was anymore. Finally, Space Ninja Brian seemed to find the vent exit he was looking for and started to unscrew the vent cover. Strive followed Space Ninja Brian as he dropped in a darkened room with a strange hulking machine in the center.

“Where are we?” Strive asked.

Space Ninja Brian headed over to a control panel in the corner of the room and punched in a code. A low hum filled the room as a large machine powered up. Slowly, the metal roof slide backwards to reveal a massive glass dome. In the surrounding starlight Strive could now see that the hulking machine was actually a massive telescope. Strive turned in a slow circle around the room, he had never heard the stars voices so clearly. By the time he turned to look at Space Ninja Brian, his skin and hair were emitting a faint glow.

“I had no idea Command had place like this. Thank you so much for showing me!” Strive said.

Space Ninja Brian paused for a moment then walked over to the base of the telescope. With a bit of effort, he sat down and patted the spot next to him. Strive sat down and leaned into Space Ninja Brian’s good shoulder.

“You know, my father used to tell me an old story about the stars. Do you want to hear it?” Strive asked.

Space Ninja Brian gave a slow nod.

“My father said that we Moebians didn’t used to have these crystals on our chest,” Strive said, “In fact our world used to be cold and dark. Most of our people used to look up to the stars with anger and resentment because they didn’t provide the same warmth the sun did, which we only have for a few hours you know? But there was a girl who loved the stars with all her heart and every night she would go out into the woods and talk to them. But one night one of the stars fell back in love with her and descended from the sky for one night and one night alone. Nine months later she gave birth to a baby boy who wore a crystal over his heart that emitted a light so warm it rivaled the sun itself. Ever since then, Moebians have been born with these crystals over their hearts and have been able to hear the voices of our brothers and sisters, the stars.”

Space Ninja Brian looked up at the stars for a moment and then back at Strive’s heart crystal.

“It’s a wild story, I know. And I know you guys don’t believe me when I say I can hear the star’s voices but I really can. And I can tell you, they know what you guys are trying to do and they love you for it,” Strive said.

Strive rested his head against Space Ninja Brian’s shoulder and they stayed like that for the rest of the night.


	43. Taken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive has an unfortunate encounter.

Strive raced through the hallways of Command, his heart racing. Commander Meouch had informed them just today that Command was ready. They were planning on another expedition into the dark zone and there were major preparations to be made. Commander Meouch had asked him to report the science division. Apparently, they needed him to make some deliveries for him. It seemed like a rather calm mission compared to his last one but he wasn’t complaining.

As Strive rounded a corner and the lights began to flicker. He slowed his pace, looking from side to side. He had never seen the lights act like this before. Was Command having electric problems? And then the lights in the hallway went dark and Strive screamed as an electric current coursed through his body.

Doctor Sung gave a grunt of excursion as he heaved another toolbox from the closet. The entire ship was in a tizzy, this was the most action most of them had seen since Command was found. For others, it was the only action they had seen as they had joined after the original raid for the morph ships. He supposed it made sense that they we excited to do their part, even if that part was just retrofitting every ship with upgraded weapons. There was one of the mechanics now, carrying something over their shoulder. Something with a white streak of hair.

“Hey! Hold on there!” Doctor Sung said as he ran toward the figure.

Commander Greyson turned, her laser gun pointed at Dr. Sung and Strive slung over her shoulder, limp and unmoving.

“Not a step closer Dr. Sung,” Commander Greyson ordered.

“Commander Greyson, what do you think you’re doing?” Dr Sung asked, his hands raised.

“What should have been done a long time ago. And once I’ve proved my point, I’ll be in charge of the Brigade not that soft hearted Meouch as it should have been from the start,” Commander Greyson.

“And what point is that?” Dr. Sung asked.

“That this child should have never been let on Command in the first place. An untested, untrained, unknown child of a barely known species had no business flying a morph ship. And to the fact he has demonstrated a connection to the shards that no one seems willing to acknowledge…this has gone far enough,” Commander Greyson growled.

“And you’ll be leaving Command to do this?” Dr. Sung asked.

“I will,” Commander Greyson replied.

“Then you’ll be taking me with,” Dr. Sung said.

“I will be doing no such thing,” Commander Greyson said.

“You will or I will be immediately setting off every alarm in this base. You know you won’t get anywhere near where you’re planning to go if you have the brigade on your tail, even if you get a head start,” Dr. Sung said as he removed his laser from its holster, placed it on the ground and kicked it away from him, “Besides, it will be easier to prove your point if you have an eye witness, right?”

Commander Greyson paused for a moment, considering her options, and the waved her gun, pointing to the ship she wanted Dr. Sung to board. Dr. Sung turned slowly, his hands still raised, and headed for the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we gooo


	44. The Prison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commander Greyson takes Dr. Sung and Strive to the prison transport ship.

Dr. Sung’s heart sunk as he recognized the ship they were headed for. It was an old prison transfer ship. It had been donated to Command in the hopes they’d someday be able to capture whoever was responsible for the appearance of the Shards but, of course, it had never been used. With his hands still raised, Dr. Sung lead the way up the gangplank. They made their way to the central area of the ship. Here there were five circular platforms that were laid out in a semicircle with a control panel across from the semicircle. When a prisoner was placed on one, a force field would activate, sealing the person inside.

“Sung,” Commander Greyson said.

Dr. Sung turned and watched as Commander Greyson slowly lowered Strive to ground, keeping her laser gun trained on him. Then she tossed a pair of handcuffs to him.

“Put those on and step on the platform,” Commander Greyson ordered.

“Isn’t that a bit of overkill? If I recall correctly these cells were tested against some of the strongest races in the galaxy. Surely you don’t think little old me could break out of one of these?” Dr. Sung asked.

“I learned a long time ago to never underestimate you brigadiers. And besides that, you have a bit of a record of breaking out of places, isn’t that right Dr. Sung?” Commander Greyson said.

“…Fair enough,” Dr Sung replied.

Dr. Sung carefully bent down and picked up the cuffs. He snapped one on and went to fasten them in front of his body but stopped when he heard a growl of displeasure from Commander Greyson so he fastened them behind his back instead. Then he stepped onto the center platform, making sure Commander Greyson couldn’t place Strive too far away from him. If Commander Greyson noticed this, she didn’t say anything and instead moved to the control panel and activated the force field around Dr. Sung’s platform.

Dr. Sung could only watch as Commander Greyson pulled out another set of cuffs and fastened Strive’s hands behind his back as well. Then Commander Greyson picked Strive up once more and, unceremoniously, dumped him in the cell on the far left. After activating Strive’s cell Commander Greyson headed for the control room.

“You know you won’t get away with this, right?” Dr. Sung called out, “Even if you are right about this, the Major will never forgive you. At the very least he’ll strip you of your rank if he doesn’t send you straight to jail.”

Commander Greyson paused at that, her back rigid.

“I’m well aware of this Dr. Sung,” Commander Greyson finally replied, “But if it means eliminating a threat to Command, I couldn’t care less if I lost my life, let alone my title.”

With that Commander Greyson entered the control room, the door sliding shut behind her. Dr. Sung sighed and sat down, leaning up against the force field. He’d always known Commander Greyson was loyal to a fault but he’d never though she’d go this far. Well there wasn’t much he could do except watch and do his best to keep Strive out of harms way.

Strive groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. His entire body was on pins and needles. What had happened? He remembered he was heading to the science division and the lights had gone out, but what had happened then? He tried to stretch out his body, but felt a jolt of fear as he realized he couldn’t move his hands. He opened his eyes and felt his fear rise as he didn’t recognize his surroundings.

“Strive!” Dr. Sung called out.

Strive awkwardly hauled himself into a sitting position and looked around until he found Dr. Sung.

“Dr. Sung! What happened? Where are we?” Strived asked.

“Well…try not to panic but I’m afraid we’ve both been kidnapped by Commander Greyson,” Dr. Sung explained.

“Oh…wait what?!” Strive yelled.


	45. Reassurance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Sung has a talk with Strive

Strive struggled to control breathing that was now coming in short raspy breaths. His entire body was shaking so hard he could hear the clicking as the parts of the handcuffs rubbed against each other. What was he going to do? What could he do? And now, not only was he in danger but Dr. Sung was as well. This was all his fault, all his fault, all his fault, all his…

“Strive? Strive! Talk to me kiddo,” Dr. Sung said.

Strive gave a sharp intake of breath and gave his head a quick shake.

“Why,” Strive whispered, “Why is she doing this? I knew, I knew she didn’t like me but why is she doing this?”

“Well…the only one that can really answer that is Greyson heself,” Dr. Sung sighed, “I mean I can guess. I have been around Command almost as long as she has.”

“You have?” Strive asked, “Does that mean, you know what happened to her?”

“It’s a bit of a long story,” Dr. Sung chuckled.

“I think we have time,” Strive said with a tight grin.

“That’s true. Well, I suppose the first thing you should know is that Commander Greyson has been in competition with Commander Meouch since the beginning,” Dr. Sung said.

“In competition? For what?” Strive asked.

“For the Starlight Brigade,” Dr. Sung explained, “You see, back when they were first planning the raid for the morph ships both Commander Meouch and Commander Greyson were under consideration to lead the raid. But Commander Greyson has one of the best strategical minds in the galaxy. The Major decided it was too risky to send her on a mission with so many unknowns. So, it was decided that she would stay behind and Commander Meouch would lead the mission.”

“And this made her…angry?” Strive asked.

“Not at first. I think she was just worried at first, especially as she watched Commander Meouch pick his team for the raid. Lord Phobos and Haave Hogan were obvious choices but Space Ninja Brain and me? Not so much,” Dr. Sung chuckled, “I don’t think she started feeling angry until after the raid. She saw how much Command started to rely on the Brigade, how involved we became in every aspect of Command’s plans…really I think that your arrival was just last nail in the coffin so to speak. She feels like no one is listening to her anymore, that she alone is the only one looking out for the safety of Command as a whole.”

“But…I never meant…I didn’t try to make her feel that way,” Strive said.

“Whoa, hold up kid. None of this is your fault. Even if you hadn’t arrived something else would have caused her to react like this. This started a long time ago and there was nothing you could do to prevent it,” Dr. Sung said.

“But what if she’s right? I’ve already gotten so many people hurt, what if I am a threat to Command?” Strive cried.

“Strive, please,” Dr. Sung said as he shifted his position in the cell to face Strive a bit better, “since you’ve arrived we have made more progress in understanding the Shards then we have since Command was founded. Yes, some people have been hurt but this is a war we’re fighting and every person on board that ship knew what they were signing up for. Do not lower yourself by calling yourself a threat. You are necessary, no, you are important Strive. Don’t forget that now.”

“Right,” Strive said as he awkwardly wiped a tear away with his shoulder, “So how do we get out of this mess?”

“Well, remember how I said I was an unusual choice for the brigade?” Dr. Sung asked.

“Yeah, I do,” Strive replied.

“Well,” Dr. Sung said as he pulled his hands out from behind his back, holding the handcuffs in one hand, “Let’s just say I have some experience escaping prison cells.”


	46. The Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Sung continues his escape attempt.

“That’s… how did you do that?!” Strive exclaimed.

“Shhh now,” Dr. Sung said with a smirk, “We don’t want to alert Commander Greyson, do we?”

Strive clenched his lips together but Dr Sung could still see the excitement in his eyes.

“And to answer your question, it takes a lot of practice,” Dr. Sung said.

“Could you teach me?” Strive asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Dr. Sung said, “but the lesson will have to wait.”

Dr Sung ran his hands across the bottom of the cell until he found what he was looking for, a small seam in the metal. Carefully, he fished the small wire that he had sewn into the hem of each of his uniforms. He only hoped this one was strong enough to get the job done. Slipping the wire into the seam he carefully began levering it back and forth, keenly aware of the seconds ticking by, until he had lifted the panel a few centimeters into the air. Then, with a grunt of exertion, Dr. Sung bent back the metal to reveal the wiring underneath the cell. Dr. Sung eyed the wire and after careful consideration he gave one of them a quick tug. With a soft hum the force field surrounding Dr. Sung’s cell powered down.

“Looks like I still have the magic touch,” Dr. Sung said.

With a quick hop, Dr. Sung stepped off of cell’s platform and started for the main control panel. But, before he could make it, he heard the door to the control room slide open. He didn’t even have a chance to turn around before he felt the electricity course through his body and his vision went dark.

“No!” Strive screamed, “What did you do?!”

“Don’t be dramatic. I only stunned him. Really, this is a prison transport ship. Did he really think I wouldn’t be watching the cameras?” Commander Greyson said.

“Please, just leave him alone,” Strive begged.

“I don’t plan on doing anything else to him, unless, that is, you’re planning on being uncooperative,” Commander Greyson replied.

“What…what do you want from me?” Strive asked.

“I’ve piloted us to the edge of the Dark Zone. The same place as your first little, incident,” Commander Greyson explained, “All I need you to do is whatever it was that got that reaction from the Shards in the first place. Whatever it was that made that crystal destroy the entire medical bay. And this ship, this ship is covered in surveillance equipment both inside and outside the hull. Its ready to record every second of this. And I’ll finally have the proof I need to show the Major that you’re a threat that needs to be removed. Immediately.”

“But that reaction you want…the Shards will attack us!” Strive exclaimed.

“The shielding on this ship is some of the best in the galaxy. It will hold,” Commander Greyson replied.

Strive’s eyes flicked between Commander Greyson’s lazer gun and Dr. Sung’s unconscious form. Slowly, he took a deep breath to steady himself.

“I’ll do it. On one condition,” Strive said.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to be naming conditions,” Commander Greyson replied.

“Just hear me out,” Strive said, “I want all three of us to be wearing space walk suits before I start. Just in case. It’s…it’s always better to be prepared, right?”

Commander Greyson was silent for a moment, and then made her way over to the control panel. Keeping her lazer gun training on him, Commander Greyson deactivated Strives cell and then, using a small remote on her side, deactivated his cuffs that fell to the ground with a dull thud.

“Perhaps Commander Meouch managed to hammer some sense into you after all. The space walk suits are in the storage panel on your left. Make it quick,” Commander Greyson ordered.

Commander Meouch stalked the halls of Command, his worry and frustration growing with every step. First the science division reported that Strive had never shown up and now he couldn’t find Dr. Sung. What was going on? Commander Meouch’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash followed a vibration that shook the very hull of Command.

Commander Meouch raced towards the source and found himself in the docking bay. Lord Phobos, Haave Hogan and Space Ninja Brain were already there and staring at something. Commander Meouch was about to scold them for hanging around in the docking bay instead of searching for their teammates like he’d asked but then he saw what they were staring at. Strive’s ship was hovering in the middle of the docking bay, its engines revving and preparing for, judging by the indent in the docking bay’s doors, another ramming attempt.

“What the…? Strive! What do you think you’re doing?!” Commander Meouch yelled.

“Strive isn’t in there!” Lord Phobos yelled.

“What?!” Commander Meouch said.

“N-no life signs de-tected aboard,” Haave Hogan explained.

Commander Meouch looked back at the ship. Haave was right, looking through the windows there was no sign of Strive’s slight form inside the ship. Commander Meouch took a second to do the math and gave a growl of frustration.

“Alright! Everyone to your ships! And you,” Commander Meouch ordered one of nearby mechanics, “Open the bay doors!”

“Commander?” Lord Phobos asked.

“There’s no time to hesitate Phobos, we’re following that ship,” Commander Meouch said.


	47. Taken, Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Shard ship responds to Strive

Strive trembled as he stood in the middle of the cell room. He, Commander Greyson and Doctor Sung all had the spacewalk suits on now, although Doctor Sung was still unconscious. Was there anything else he could do?

“Anytime now,” Commander Greyson said, her lazer gun still trained on him.

Strive took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves, but the trembling continued. He clasped his hands in front of crystal and tried to concentrate but panicked thoughts kept invading his mind. This was all wrong. This was going to go horribly wrong. Someone was going to get hurt. Again. And it was going to be all his fault. Again. And what could he do? He didn’t have his gun. He could talk to the stars…he could talk to the stars. He knew he couldn’t ask them to carry a message, as far as he knew no one else on Command could hear them. But he could ask them what was going on. Had the rest of the Brigade noticed they were gone yet? Had the Shards noticed them yet? Maybe if he alerted Commander Greyson when the Shards were coming, he could convince her to leave before they reached them. No one would get hurt.

Taking another breath Strive reached out to the stars. It was harder with the thick hull separating him from them, but he could still hear their whispers. He could hear their fear.

“They’re coming,” the stars whispered.

“Who?” Strive asked, “The Brigade? The Shards?”

“Both,” the stars replied, “Run.”

Strive’s concentration was broken as the ship shook and he was thrown backwards, his back slamming into one of the cell platforms. Strive looked over to Commander Greyson who was, somehow, still on her feet.

“They’re here!” Strive yelled, “We need to go!”

Commander Greyson rushed for the control room but was stopped as a large black crystal column pierced through the ceiling with a horrifying screeching noise as the crystal pushed the metal hull backwards. The column continued downward, pushing through the floor, blocking Commander Greyson’s access to the control room and effectively skewering the ship.

Strive looked around, searching for anything he could use as a weapon, but was distracted by a low moan coming from the floor. Looking over he saw Doctor Sung shakily rising to his knees while shaking his head from side to side.

“Doctor Sung!” Strive yelled.

Then Strive heard another, far more ominous, groan come from above him. He looked up to see the ceiling above him bulging and twisting. Strive scrambled to his feet as another crystal column burst through the ceiling. As the crystal crashed down it made contact with Strive’s waist but, to his surprise, it did not pierce his skin. Instead he felt it almost flow around him only to reform and solidify around his waist.

“Doctor Sung!” Strive screamed as the crystal retreated, drawing him up through the ceiling.

Strive could only watch as the Shard ship drew away from the prison ship, leaving behind two gaping holes in it’s hull. Strive could do nothing as the crystals continued to draw him upwards, through the floor, and into the Shard ship.

Doctor Sung had no idea what was going on as he was suddenly slammed into the ceiling of the ship. As he tried to get his bearings he rolled to the side, only to find himself ejected through the massive hole in the hull of the ship. Tumbling through space he turned to find another figure emerge from the hull, its hand outstretched towards him. Flailing, he managed to grasp the hand and found himself staring into Commander Greyson as she fought against the blast of escaping oxygen to keep ahold of his hand. Finally, the current stopped as the last of the oxygen escaped into the vacuum of space and Commander Greyson drew Doctor Sung down to the edge of the hole and back into the ship.

“So, I take it that things went just as horribly as I said they would?” Doctor Sung asked.

Commander Greyson didn’t reply.

“Greyson, where is Strive?” Doctor Sung asked.

Again, Commander Greyson didn’t reply.

“Greyson, I swear to the cosmos if you hurt him…” Doctor Sung threatened.

“It wasn’t me,” Commander Greyson snapped, “It was the Shards. They took him.”

Doctor Sung could only stare at her, fury rising inside of him. He wanted to hurt her. Or at least throw her out of the hole in the hull and leave her at the mercy of whatever lurked outside. But that wouldn’t help anything. Instead he started fiddling with the heel of his boot.

“What are you doing?” Commander Greyson asked.

Instead of replying Doctor Sung continued to fiddle with the heel until it snapped open and a small, circular object floated free.

“A communicator? You had one this whole time?!” Commander Greyson yelled.

“It’s only a short range one. So, you better hope my team is nearby,” Doctor Sung said as he pressed the middle button, “Commander? Haave? Phobos? Brain? Does anybody read me?”

There was static for a moment before Commander Meouch’s voice broke through.

“Doctor Sung? Is that you? Are you alright? Where are you?” Commander Meouch asked.

“Well I’m a lot better hearing your voice, but I’m a bit stranded. I’ve got Commander Greyson with me as well,” Doctor Sung said, “But Strive, Commander the Shards attacked us and they took him.”

Doctor Sung could hear Commander Meouch’s growl before Lord Phobos interrupted.

“I’ve got your coordinates and it doesn’t look like we’re headed in your direction. Do you think the ship is headed for Strive?” Lord Phobos asked.

“What? What ship?” Doctor Sung asked.

“Strive’s ship,” Lord Phobos explained, “It took off on its own and we’re following it now.”

“That’s insane,” Doctor Sung said.

“It is, and we can only assume it’s headed for Strive,” Commander Meouch said, “Space Ninja Brian, you head for Doctor Sung and Commander Greyson and take them back to Command. I imagine Doctor Sung has quite the report to make to the Major.”

There was silence over the comms.

“Don’t give me that look,” Commander Meouch said, “The way Strive’s ship is going in this is in no way a stealth mission. You’re the only person I can spare.”

Another moment of silence fell over the comms.

“Thank you. Doctor Sung, Commander Greyson, get ready for pick up,” Commander Meouch said.

“Commander, you bring that kid back in once piece, you hear me?” Doctor Sung said.

“I will,” Commander Meouch promised.


	48. Revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive faces the origin of the Shards

Strive shivered slightly and tried to take another mental tally of his situation. First was that he was stuck. When the Shard ship had drawn him in it had only released his head and his torso, leaving his arms and his legs stuck inside the hull of the ship. He knew there was a chance he could release himself by destroying the crystals the same way he had back on Command, but he still wasn’t quite sure how he’d done that. Which brought him to his second problem, he didn’t know where the Brigade was. If he did manage to free himself there was a good chance, he’d destroy the ship too and get sucked out into space. True, he had his spacewalk suit on but that only lasted so long. There was no telling if the Brigade would get there in time to rescue him. Third problem, he didn’t know where he was. All he knew was he was inside the Dark Zone, somewhere past the Ship Graveyard. He’d tried to communicate with the pilot in front of him, but he was just as unresponsive as the pilot they had removed from the other Shard ship. So, even if he managed to escape and then take over the ship, he had no idea how to get back to Command before he was either shot down or recaptured. Come to think of it he wasn’t even sure he could pilot a Shard ship. Strive sighed, letting his head droop forward. No matter how many times he thought about it, there wasn’t much he could do except wait.

Strive lifted his head in surprise when he saw a green glow just reaching the edge of his vision. Light? What could be emitting light in the Dark Zone? Strive gave a gasp of surprise when he saw that the light was coming from a massive planet, the surface of which was covered in deep cracks like a shattered mirror. And from these cracks was spilling an eerie green light. As the planet grew larger and larger in the window Strive realized that this must be their destination.

Still far behind the Shard ship, the Brigade struggled to keep up with Strive’s ship. Commander Meouch gripped his controls as if his life depended on it. He didn’t have to look in the mirror to know his mane had doubled in size. He wasn’t happy to be passing through the Ship Graveyard again, he could still hear the cries of his old teammates as the Shards mowed them down, one by one.

“Commander,” Commander Meouch jumped as Lord Phobos hailed him, “the ship isn’t slowing down. How far in do you think it’s taking us?”

“I don’t know,” Commander Meouch admitted.

“I don’t like this Commander. It’s too quiet. Where are all the Shards?” Lord Phobos asked.

Commander Meouch’s stomach sank even further. If Lord Phobos had noticed too then he wasn’t imagining it.

“I don’t know,” Commander Meouch repeated, “but I have a feeling we’re going to find out.”

As the Shard ship reached the surface of the planet, the pilot got up and walked zombie-like over to Strive. In his hand was a small, black crystal. Strive began to panic, struggling to break free of the hull, but it was no use as the pilot pressed the black crystal against his forehead. Strive screamed and pressed his eyes closed as a searing pain passed through his head and as the pilot drew away and Strive opened his eyes once more, he could see his hands were empty. Then Strive gave a cry of surprise as he was drawn back inside the hull and was, unceremoniously, dumped onto the ground. Strive stared in shock as the Shard ship simply flew away, leaving him alone on the planet. Still dizzy with pain, he looked around and found the planet bare. There were some small stone spires and a massive mountain, it’s surface also cracked and radiating that eerie green light, but there were no buildings or any signs of lift. Did the Shards simply mean to strand him here?

Strive’s thoughts were interrupted by a rumbling noise, followed ear splitting cracks. He turned to find, with growing horror, that the mountain was moving. First, one massive stone arm emerged, and then a second followed. The arms pushed against the ground, hauling a large stone head and long, slender torso out of the ground. Two eyes and a massive mouth opened, both glowing green like a massive stone jack-o-lantern. Upon its head was a massive metal grown that also glowed with a softer, blue light. Then the stone creature gave an oddly human-like movement, rolling one shoulder and then the other as if its back was stiff from a long nap. The creatures head swung back and forth until it’s gaze focused on Strive. Then it leaned forward until its chin rested against the ground in front of him and both its hands were settled on the ground to either side of him. Now that the creature was closer Strive could see and smell the noxious green fumes that it was emitting, and he let out a series of coughs.

“Ohhh you’re here at last,” the creature crooned, the crystal in Strive’s forehead vibrating with every word, “Aren’t you the strangest little star we’ve ever seen.”

Even though the creatures mouth was moving, Strive realized that the creature wasn’t really speaking. It…no…she, was speaking directly into his mind. And she was using the crystal to do so. Horrified, he turned to face her.

“Who are you?” Strive asked in between his coughs.

“Oh, should we tell him? He doesn’t need to know. Oh, but it’s been so long,” the creature sighed.

There was a pause as the creature seemed to deliberate. With whom she was deliberating with, Strive wasn’t sure. Finally, she refocused on him.

“I…am the ground beneath your feet. I am the fires that burn beneath it. Here, and as far as your eyes can see,” the creature said.

Strive paused as his heart began to sink. He knew now why the Shard ship had simply dropped him here. There was nowhere to run.

“You’re the planet,” Strive said softly, “The entire planet.”

“Yes!” The planet cried as if excited he had solved her riddle, “Oh and I used to be beautiful you know? So much green everywhere. So many little ones running around. They used to give me gifts. Not that I needed them, they were really just giving me things I had made myself, but they were so sweet I took them anyways. And they would make such sweet noises with their voices. Not that I understood a word they said. I loved them but I was so lonely.”

The planet focused its eyes upwards and gave a sigh, spewing out another cloud of fumes that sent Strive into another fit of coughing.

“But my little ones were so clever. Always building and growing. Then there was one who was much cleverer than the rest. He gave me a present,” she said as she drew one stone finger across the metal band on her forehead, “I put it on and he pulled out smaller, matching one that he put on himself. And at last! I could understand one of my little ones! He called himself Doctor Spriggan. He made more of these gifts for all my little ones so I could hear their voices. I learned they called me Goddess. But as we came to understand each other, they started to call me Mother. And we were so happy.”

“What happened?” Strive asked as his coughs settled.

“I got sick,” Mother said her voice inside his head softer now, “My heart started to break down. Great cracks appeared across my skin, shooting out fire from below. Spriggan came to me, old and frail now, and told me I was dying. I didn’t need to be told. I knew. But then he told me that all of my littles were leaving me! That they couldn’t survive here any longer. I told him to wait! That I had a solution!”

Mother turned her gaze upwards, towards the pitch-black sky.

“I told him to use his machines and capture me a star. I could sense their energy from the moment I came to consciousness and I knew I could use it. I could stop my sickness and we could be happy again!” she said, her voice growing higher in pitch as the ground beneath him rumbled, “But he refused me! He was horrified that I would even suggest such a thing! We argued and though I dared not push against him physically, I knew how fragile my children’s bodies were, in my anger I pushed against his mind. Using his own invention, no less.”

Mother grew quiet again, just for a moment, before continuing.

“He popped right out of his body. His mind suddenly inside of my mind and his body an empty husk. He screamed and wailed, and I promised I would fix this…but then I had an idea. So, I used his body. I used it to give the orders to build my star trap and my other children had no idea it was me giving the orders. They were all too willing once they though Spriggan agreed with my plan. A few more grew suspicious, so I was forced to push again and again. But it was going to be alright. I would just put them back once I was well again,” Mother explained.

“The trap. It must have worked,” Strive said.

“Of course it did,” Mother said, “And filling myself with the stars energy, I was healed. But only for a while.”

Mother gave out a low growl that Strive soon realized wasn’t coming from his head but rather the ground beneath him.

“My heart started to break once more. I demanded they capture more stars. But more and more of the grew afraid as they watched the stars around me disappear. They railed against me, some even tried to leave me. I had to push again and again. Until I had them all inside my head with me. They scream and wail. They’ve stopped calling me Mother now. Now they call me, Malice. It’s so cruel of them,” Malice crooned.

“But if they’re all inside you,” Strive said as he tried to still his shaking, “then who built all of the Shard ships?”

Malice looked puzzled for a moment but then drew back from Strive, her entire form shaking in laughter.

“Ships? You mean these husks?” Malice said as she flattened her palm and a Shard ship dropped down to land on it, “I made them. Completely by mistake of course. I drained a little too much of a star’s energy one day and all that was left behind was this husk. But I was so delighted to find that these husks are lovely interfaces. They work even better than my little Spriggan’s inventions. I still need to use my little one’s husks to properly order them about, but they are quite effective at hunting down stars for me. Well, the husks that are left that is. I do seem to be running short on them these days.”

Strive felt his blood turn cold. Was that what his ship truly was? The corpse of star?

“And they’re still hunting for me. I drink and I drink but the energy hasn’t been enough to stabilize me. Not even my own little ones believe I will be well again. Then Spriggan,” Malice said as she slammed her fist into the ground, the shockwave almost knocking Strive over, “Spriggan ran away from me! Broke free of my mind and stole one of the little star husks! I had to chase him! Order him shot down! Oh, but it all worked out in the end. Because he found you.”

Malice bent back down, bringing her face even closer to Strives then it had been before.

“I couldn’t believe what the husks told me as they fought you. A living, breathing star. One even capable of breaking my connection to them. It took you two tries to really get them to forget their orders, but I was still impressed. I was certain this time, you were the cure for all my ills. You and the rest of your people, wherever they are hiding,” Malice said as she drew back to her full height and towered above him, “So rejoice little star! For you are the first step towards restoring life to me!”

Strive didn’t even have time to scream as the ground opened up beneath him.

When Strive finally stopped moving he was dropped into a pool of water that was glowing a faint, sickly green. He had no idea where he was, he had felt the soil moving around him, carrying who knows where. He looked up to see that trapped in a black crystal cage. He could see nothing outside, if there even was an outside, only his reflection staring back at him. Crying in frustration he tore at the crystal in his forehead, desperately scratching at it until he finally felt it pull away from his skin. He felt the blood dripping down his forehead, but he didn’t care, he simply dropped the crystal into the water and watched it sink.

Then he stood and started pounding against the walls, screaming for someone, anyone, to answer him. He screamed until his throat was raw, but there was no reply. Not even the stars answered his cries. He was tired. His limbs were feeling heavier and heavier. Strive laid back in the water, his hair floating around him like a halo. He thought, as he drifted off into blackness, that he had never felt so alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a longer chapter then I usually do but you can't cut off the villain during the monologue, right?
> 
> If you want to see my drawing of Malice's reveal click [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/baykitthings)


	49. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commander Meouch, Lord Phobos and Haave Hogan reach Malice.

Oh, Commander Meouch thought, that’s where all of the Shard ships are. What at first had only been a green prick of light in his windshield had quickly grown into a massive planet, the surface of which was covered in a network of cracks that were emitting that malevolent green light. Surrounding the planet was hundreds of Shard ships that circled the planet like a swarm of terrifying black insects.

“Commander,” Lord Phobos’s voice broke through Commander Meouch’s train of thought.

“Yes?” Commander Meouch replied.

“Those Shards…it doesn’t look like they’re attacking that planet. Do you think this is…?” Lord Phobos asked, his question left hanging in the air.

“Their home base? It looks that way,” Commander Meouch said.

“And Strives ship…it’s not slowing or turning away,” Lord Phobos said.

“No, it’s not,” Commander Meouch replied.

“So…that means Strive must be somewhere down there,” Lord Phobos concluded.

“That would be my guess too,” Commander Meouch said.

“But how is it planning to get him out of there? It’s definitely not using stealth and last I heard it didn’t have any weapons! Is it planning on charging straight through them?” Lord Phobos said.

“I wish I had an answer for you,” Commander Meouch said, “but I don’t. All we can do right now is follow it’s lead and help however we can.”

As they approached the planet Commander Meouch felt his stomach sink as the Shards turned towards them, their green windshields turning into view one by one. He knew this wasn’t a fight they could win. Then Strive’s ship turned sharply, it’s entire hull aglow as it left a blazing tail of light behind it. Commander Meouch watched, his jaw slack, as every single shard turned its attention towards the ship and away from the rest of the brigade. The Shards then abandoned the planet and turned to chase Strives ship, swarm like, as it danced it’s way across the sky, staying within view of the planet but never coming so close as to be pulled in by it’s gravitational field. Commander Meouch shook his head in wonder and then turned his attention back to the planet.

“Alright, we have ourselves a distraction. Let’s go find Strive,” Commander Meouch said.

“How?” Lord Phobos asked, “That planet is huge and we don’t even have a starting point."

Commander Meouch cursed silently. Lord Phobos was right but they didn’t have a moment to spare. Who knew how long whatever Strive’s ship was doing was going to last.

“Com-mander,” Haave said.

Haave’s communicator blinked into visual mode so Commander Meouch could see Haave sitting in his ship. Haave then pointed to the panel in his left chest. A panel that was now glowing with a steady green light. Haave tapped on the panel and it popped open. Out tumbled a small green crystal. The crystal Strive had given Haave as a present all those weeks ago. The crystal that was now emitting a beam of light that was pointing straight for the planet.

“Haave…follow that light. Lord Phobos and I will back you up,” Commander Meouch ordered as he mentally shook himself out of his state of shock.

“Y-es Commander,” Haave replied as he turned his ship for the planet.

Haave didn’t need to look to know that Commander Meouch and Lord Phobos were still circling above him as he touched down on the planet. He knew. Haave climbed out of his ship, his touchdown stirring up a small cloud of black dust that surrounded him and momentarily obscured his optical sensors. As the dust cleared Haave saw that he was surrounded by black crystal domes that jutted out of the planets surface, each one about as tall as he was and about as bit around as his ship. But there was no time to stare or even gather data. Haave held the crystal out in front of him to better follow its light.

Haave hadn’t gone far when he felt his heart sink. He didn’t have a heart anymore, not in the literal sense, but he could still swear he felt it drop. The beam of light ended at one of the crystal domes, this one smaller around then others and only half as tall. Haave walked around the edge of the dome, just to be sure, but the beam of light held its course. Haave raised his fist, only hesitating for a moment before bringing it down on the crystal. There was no time to be delicate.

It too three hits for the crystal to shatter. Haave tore at the edges, enlarging the hole until he could see inside. If he still had a heartbeat it would have froze at the sight. Strive was there, his body floating in a pool of green liquid. His skin was pale, and the right side of his face was caked in dark purple blood. And he was still. So still Haave might have taken him for dead if it hadn’t been for the slight movement of his chest as he continued to take short, shallow breaths. Haave tore more frantically at the edges of the hole now until he could finally reach inside the dome. Then he bent over and gently picked up Strive, cradling him against his chest.

Then the ground shook beneath his feet. Haave turned to see a monstrous form rising behind him. It grew, tall as a mountain, until it loomed above him. It was made of stone but it shone with a green light from the places where the stones didn’t quite fit together. Its face was made of three holes in its face, from which a stead stream of steam was rising. It looked at him and screamed, a terrible screamed that sounded like stones grinding together. Then it reached for him.

Haave ran. He ran even though he knew he couldn’t make it. It was too big. They would both be squashed before he even reached his ship. Then he heard the sound of missiles being fired and the creature screamed again as they made contact. Commander Meouch and Lord Phobos. He had to hurry. He couldn’t waste the time they had given him.

Haave clambered back into his ship. The pilots seat was a tight fit with Strive still in his lap but he didn’t dare put him down. With the two arms that were still free he reached to start the launching sequence but was startled it already done. He shook his head slightly, there was no time wonder about it as it had bought him a few extra seconds. He hit the ignition and blasted straight out of the planet’s gravitational pull, the creatures screams following him out into the darkness.

“Haave,” Commander Meouch’s voice came over the comms as they reached the ship graveyard with no Shards in sight, “Do you have Strive? Turn on your visual.”

Haave flicked on his visual and Commander Meouch and Lord Phobos stared back at him, silent at the sight.

“Haave,” Lord Phobos said as his voice broke on the second syllable, “Is he…?”

“He breaths,” Haave replied, “But other th-en that. I don’t kn-ow.” 


	50. Space Ninja Brian Knows Best

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Shik is at a loss as to how to help Strive

Commander Meouch, Lord Phobos, Haave Hogan, Doctor Sung and Space Ninja Brian crowded around the window outside the med bay room. Dr. Shik stood next to Strive’s hospital bed taking readings off of the surrounding machines, each one hooked up to Strive. Strive lay in the hospital bed, his face was now clean of blood and a white bandage wrapped around his forehead, but his skin still terribly pale and the glow from his heart crystal was dim. They had never, each brigade member thought as they felt the cold tendrils of anxiety creep up their spines, seen Strive quite so still. Slowly, Dr Shik turned away from the machines and exited the room.

“How is he? Is he going to be alright?” Doctor Sung asked.

“I don’t know,” Dr. Shik sighed.

“What do you mean you don’t know,” Commander Meouch growled as he stepped closer to Dr. Shik.

“Hold on Commander,” Lord Phobos said as he stepped between Commander Meouch and Dr. Shik, “let’s let Dr. Shik explain.”

“He shows all the signs of some sort of nutrient deficiency,” Dr. Shik explained, “But nothing I’ve tried has seemed to help. I’ve tried giving him fluids and every sort of supplement but his condition isn’t improving.”

“So now what?” Doctor Sung asked.

“You analyzed his bl-ood samples from before, corr-ect? Can’t that tell you wh-at he needs?” Haave Hogan added.

“I did and there was an unknown compound in his bloodstream. But we still don’t know what it is or how to make more of it. We’ll keep trying but it will be difficult to help him when we don’t know what he needs,” Dr. Shik said.

“We understand,” Doctor Sung said, “If you don’t mind, we’d like to sit with him. It’s two visitors in a room at a time, right? Brian and I will take the first shift. Right Brian? Brian?”

Doctor Sung looked around to find that Space Ninja Brian had disappeared. Suddenly, a series of squealing alarms filled the med bay. The four of them and Dr. Shik whirled around to find that Space Ninja Brian had entered Strive’s room and was disconnecting Strive from all of the machines. Commander Meouch burst into the room as Brian was lifting Strive from the bed.

“Brian! What do you think you’re doing? Put Strive down this instant!” Commander Meouch ordered.

Space Ninja Brian slowly turned, Strive in his arms, to face Commander Meouch.

“No,” Space Ninja Brain said.

Commander Meouch stared at Space Ninja Brain, frozen in shock. Space Ninja Brian darted around him and sprinted into the hallway.

Space Ninja Brian raced through the hallways of Command, garnering more then a few odd looks from passing guards. But he had no time to dwell on that. He knew the shock of hearing his voice wouldn’t hold Commander Meouch for long. He knew where he had to take Strive.

Space Ninja Brian skidded to a halt in front of the door to the observatory. It was a little odd seeing it like this, he usually went in from the vents. Carefully slinging Strive over one shoulder, Space Ninja Brian picked the lock on the door. Entering the observatory Space Ninja Brian gently placed Strive on the ground and headed for the control panel. Punching in the code once more, the observatory powered up and the metal shell slid back to reveal the stars. Silently, Space Ninja Brian walked over to Strive and gently lifted his head and rested it on his lap.

Commander Meouch burst into the observatory trailed by Doctor Sung, Lord Phobos, Haave Hogan and Doctor Shik. For once, it hadn’t been hard to find Brian. All they had to do was follow the trail of bewildered Command soldiers. As Meouch scanned the room his eyes quickly fell on Space Ninja Brian. He was sitting on the ground with Strive laying on the ground in front of him, his head resting in Brian’s lap.

“Space Ninja Brian, I don’t know what possessed you to do this but we need to return Strive to medical bay immediately,” Commander Meouch said as he struggled to contain his fury.

Space Ninja Brian shook his head.

“What do you mean no?” Commander Meouch growled.

Space Ninja Brian pointed down to Strive. Commander Meouch looked and stepped back in surprise. The glow from Strive’s heart crystal was steady and strong and was spreading across Strive’s skin. Doctor Shik stepped up to Strive and knelt down to check his pulse.

“It’s stronger than before,” Dr. Shik said, her voice containing a quiet awe, “But what’s causing this?”

Space Ninja Brian gestured to the stars outside the window.

“The starlight?” Dr. Shik said with a puzzled expression, “I know you said he was nocturnal…I guess he could be receiving something from them like how humans receive vitamin D from the sun…I’d have to run more tests to be sure…but nevermind that now. This is obviously the best place on Command for him to recover but we should try and make things more comfortable.”

“I’ll grab the sleepover supplies!” Doctor Sung announced, “I assume that since this isn’t the med bay it’s alright if we all stay with him?”

“Yes, that’s fine. I’ll grab the wearable monitor for him. Then I can keep track of his vitals from the med bay. And I expect you to bring him to me once he wakes up for a check-up,” Dr. Shik said.

“Of course,” Commander Meouch said.

Strive was floating. Or at least it felt like he was. It had been so cold before. Everything had felt so heavy, even his chest. Now he was warm. But his chest was still heavy. Not like before though. It was more like something was sitting on top of his chest. Something furry.

Strive cracked open his eyes and felt an immediate rush of relief as he saw the stars twinkling above him. But, where was he? He tried to sit up but almost immediately fell back as whatever was pinning him down was too heavy for his still shaky arms to move aside. He turned his head to the side and realized with a start that Commander Meouch was asleep beside him. The heavy object was one of Commander Meouch’s arms that had been slung, protectively perhaps, across his chest.

“Whoops, looks like he has you pinned down,” a voice whispered.

Strive turned to his other side and felt another rush of relief when he saw Doctor Sung laying beside him, his helmet off so Strive could see his dark brown eyes and tousled brown hair.

“Doctor Sung,” Strive whispered, wincing at how rough his voice sounded.

“How are you feeling?” Doctor Sung asked.

“Tired. Shaky. My head is throbbing too,” Strive said.

“Sounds about right. Here, let me free you,” Doctor Sung chuckled.

Doctor Sung reached over and gently pushed Commander Meouch’s arm off of Strive’s chest. Strive gave a deep breath of relief. With Meouch’s arm removed Strive finally got a look at what he was wearing, an odd shirt with what looked to be a thin layer of electronic devices woven in.

“Wearable monitor,” Doctor Sung said, answering Strive’s unasked question, “It lets Dr. Shik keep track of your vitals from the med bay.”

“Oh,” Strive said softly, “But Doctor Sung, what about you? Are you okay?”

“Hm? Oh, right. Yes, the brigade picked me and Greyson up pretty soon after you were taken.” Doctor Sung said.

“What about everyone else? And Greyson?” Strive asked.

“Fine, but she’s been locked in the brig for the time being. Until she can be given a trial anyways,” Doctor Sung explained, “And everyone else is right here. Haave and Brian and behind you and Lord Phobos is right next to me,” Doctor Sung said as he sat up slightly so Strive could see Lord Phobos.

“Okay,” Strive said.

Then Strive took a deep breath and then started to try and push himself into a sitting position, struggling the entire time.

“Woah, hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Doctor Sung said in a harsh whisper.

“We have to hurry. The Shards, all of this, it’s so much bigger than I ever thought. We’re all in danger, my people are in danger,” Strive’s said before letting out a noise of protest as Doctor Sung easily pushed him back down onto the blankets.

“We will be doing no such thing. Especially not you. You are still sick. Do you know what a scare you gave all of us?” Doctor Sung said.

“I’m sorry,” Strive said, a guilty expression crossing his face.

“Besides,” Doctor Sung said, his tone softening, “If you’re talking about that stone creature, we managed to do some damage to it before we left. I’m sure we have some time to prepare before anything really happens.”

They were silent for a moment before Doctor Sung let out an exasperated sigh.

“I can practically hear you still worrying. Is there anything I can do to distract you?” Doctor Sung asked.

“Ummm…you can tell me how you know how to pick locks?” Strive suggested.

“Th…That’s what you’re curious about?” Doctor Sung stuttered.

“Besides the imminent doom of my race…yes,” Strive said.

“Touché,” Doctor Sung said, “Well, if you must know, I was something of criminal before I joined the brigade. A thief really.”

“A thief?” Strive said in a hushed tone, “But, then how did you join the brigade?”

“Well, I didn’t actually do much of the actual stealing. I was never good at sneaking about. But I was a fantastic getaway driver,” Doctor Sung explained, “And Commander Meouch offered me a deal. Join the brigade as a pilot and once this whole battle with Shards is over, I walk away with a clean slate.”

“Wow,” Strive said with a slight giggle.

“What’s so funny?” Doctor Sung asked.

“Nothing,” Strive replied, “I just never thought I’d be friends with a real-life criminal.”

“Oh, go to bed you,” Doctor Sung said. 


	51. The Ghost in the Machine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brigade has a very important conversation

Strive leaned back on the pillows on his windowsill bed. As much fun as camping out in the observatory had been, he was glad that Dr. Shik had agreed that his personal policy of sleeping in the window would provide him with more than enough starlight to finish his recovery. But falling asleep was proving more and more difficult. It had been three days since he had given his full report of everything he had learned to the Major. He had been shocked to say the least. But now that he had recovered somewhat Strive was feeling antsy. No plan of action had been announced and Strive didn’t like that. Malice was sure to find the location of his home soon enough and then all of his people would be in danger! He did understand somewhat, fighting against the mysterious Shard ships had been bad enough but now they had to come up with a plan to combat Malice. And, logically, Strive knew that even if there was a plan he couldn’t help out anyways. His ship still hadn’t returned from the Dark Zone.

His ship, there was another mystery to solve. He had always talked to his ship, always enjoyed its small hums and purrs in response. But for it to take off on its own and track him down from galaxies away? He’d had no idea it was capable of that. Who knew what else it was capable of. Of course, there would be no way of finding out until it returned. Strive gave a huff of annoyance and clutched one of the pillows to his chest. How was he supposed to sleep with so many unanswered questions bouncing around his head? Strive turned as he heard the doors to his room slide open.

“Oh, good you’re awake,” Lord Phobos said, “No…wait…I mean you should be sleeping.”

“Yeah, I know,” Strive laughed, “I’m just finding that a bit difficult right now.”

“Understandable. Would it help if I told you your ship is back?” Lord Phobos asked.

“It is?!” Strive cried in excitement.

“Yep, just docked itself in the hanger. Want to come see?” Lord Phobos asked.

Strive was already kicking his blankets off and heading for the door. As they jogged through the hallways Strive felt a flicker of both annoyance and tenderness as he realized that Lord Phobos was likely slowing his pace because he was worried Strive couldn’t keep up. But those feelings were immediately replaced with shock as they entered the hanger.

Strive’s ship was sitting in the middle of the hanger, clouds of steam rising from it’s hull as a team doused it with fire represent chemicals. One wing was crumpled and half melted and it’s hull was covered in black scorch marks. Half of Command, including Doctor Sung, Commander Meouch, Haave Hogan and Space Ninja Brian had turned up to stare at the process. And yet, his ship had an odd air about it that he couldn’t quite put his finger on until Doctor Sung spoke up from beside him.

“You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say your ship looks rather pleased with itself,” Doctor Sung remarked.

And it was true. Strive couldn’t explain exactly why, perhaps it was the odd tilt it sat at because of the half busted landing gears or the sheen of the hull as the chemical compounds ran off of it, but the ship reminded Strive of some feline creature that, despite having wrecked half of the house and gotten itself quite dirty in the process, had deposited a newly caught bit of prey in front of its owner and was now waiting to be praised.

“Can…can I go inside?” Strive asked.

“In a moment,” Commander Meouch said with an exasperated tone, “Once the crew has finished cooling the hull. It literally burst into flames the moment it entered our oxygen shields.”

“Why do you want to hop onboard so soon? You’re not going to be able to take off like that you know,” Lord Phobos teased.

“It’s not that!” Strive protested, “I just…I have a question for it.”

“For…your ship?” Doctor Sung asked.

“Yes,” Strive said.

“And…you think it can answer?” Doctor Sung asked.

“Maybe?” Strive said, feeling a little unsure, “Something Malice said…it’s just a theory…”

“If that’s the case then we’re going on board with you,” Commander Meouch said without hesitation.

Strive felt Doctor Sung and Space Ninja Brian grasp his shoulders and he nodded, his throat feeling tight with emotion. They watched as, finally, the fire crew backed away and declared his ship safe to approach. Strive walked up to it and gently placed his hand against the hull.

“Hey, I know you probably aren’t feeling so great right now, but can you please let us in? I need to ask you something,” Strive said quietly.

With a gentle ripple, a large opening appeared in the hull. Strive stepped in quickly followed by the rest of the brigade. The interior of his ship was dark and still.

“Spriggan?” Strive called out, “That’s your name isn’t it? Please, I need to talk to you.”

Silence followed Strive’s request and Strive was starting to feel a bit foolish when he saw the light. Lots of little lights actually. Small orbs of light where rising all around him, seeming to come out of the hull itself, and condensing in the center of the room. With a final flash of light, there was now a figure standing in front of him. He wore a white lab coat and had the same greyish skin as the pilot and the same whisker-like protrusions coming from his chin, although his features were slightly see-through. But his features were rounder, healthier, and his brown eyes were definitely focused on Strive. 

“Doctor Spriggan?” Strive asked.

“Strive, you don’t know how happy it makes me to hear someone say my name again,” Doctor Spriggan said with a voice that seemed to be coming from the hull of the ship itself.

“I have so many questions,” Strive said.

“I know,” Doctor Spriggan said as he raised one hand, “But I’m afraid my time with you is limited. You already know part of my story, yes? About how I studied Malice and her abilities. But what I’m sure she didn’t tell you is that after I completed the communication device for her, I studied the stars as well.”

“You did?” Strive asked.

“Yes, my species doesn’t have the same natural connection to them as yours does, so the idea that the stars were alive was only a theory. So, I sought a way to communicate with them, to make a translator similar to the one I made Malice. And it worked! I spoke with them and I learned what they truly are,” Doctor Spriggan said with a wistful expression on his face, “I learned that stars are souls.”

“Souls?” Doctor Sung cut in.

“Yes, souls,” Doctor Spriggan continued, “It’s all part of a great cycle. You know that one of the laws of the universe is that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only change forms. I found that when a living thing dies, its corporeal form immediately releases its energy and is ready for that change. But the energy of the soul is unique. It takes far longer for it to break down and become ready for change. And that is what those vast reaches of otherwise empty space are for. It’s all a great resting place for souls stay until they are ready for that change. And once they are ready, they break down into dust that is then reformed into … well anything from new planets to new people. So, you understand my horror when Malice suggested we use them to try and heal her.”

“Of course,” Commander Meouch said smoothly, “But then what has happened to the stars that have become the Shard ships? Or our ships for that matter?”

“Ah, yes, the Shard ships. I’m afraid that when Malice drained too much energy it sent them into a state of shock. They are frozen, unable to either keep shining or break themselves down and rejoin the cycle. That’s why they’re so easy for Malice to control…or for me to control for that matter,” Doctor Spriggan explained.

“But then why can I break them down? Am I hurting them? Will I hurt the ships?!” Strive cried.

“No Strive, no you’re not hurting them. The opposite in fact. The light you emit, it revitalizes them. It allows them to reenter the cycle by breaking them down. As for your ships, by bonding with them they have already rejoined the cycle by giving them new forms and new purpose. Really, I think they’d be insulted if you so much as tried to break them down now,” Doctor Spriggan chuckled before focusing his attention back on Strive, “Really I’ve never met a species as brave as yours before. What a marvelous and terrifying thing it must be, to wear your soul where everyone can see.”

Strive was silent for a moment before he was filled with alarm. Doctor Spriggan’s body was starting to break apart, small orbs of light fleeing not back into the hull, but out into space.

“Doctor Spriggan!” Strive cried.

“It’s alright Strive,” Doctor Spriggan said calmly, “It’s just my turn to rejoin the cycle. Your ship was very kind, allowing me to stay with you this long, but my time is up.”

“But what about Malice?” Commander Meouch said, “How do we defeat her?”

“You don’t need to defeat her, you just need to let her die,” Doctor Spriggan said, “Attack the pyramid where she has stored the stars. Without their energy her core will crumble in a matter of hours.”

“But your people,” Strive said.

“Strive, listen to me,” Doctor Spriggan said, “Letting them die, letting Malice die, is the kindest thing you can do. Malice cannot return them to their bodies, she never could. Most of them don’t have bodies to return to. If you don’t release them then all that awaits them is an eternity of horror, trapped inside Malice’s head. Please, do this for them.”

Strive paused, but then looked up and gave Doctor Spriggan a tight nod, his eyes full of tears. Doctor Spriggan drew back, apparently satisfied.

“I’ll leave you now. Please, bring everything you have to this final battle. Malice won’t hold anything back. And Strive, I hope we get the chance to talk again while I’m shining out there,” Doctor Spriggan said.

With that Doctor Spriggan’s body dissolved into flecks of light that rose through the ceiling of the ship. They traveled through the hanger and out the hanger door, out into the darkness of the space beyond.

An odd quiet enveloped the brigade as they exited Strive’s ship. They started walking back towards their living quarters but then Strive stopped in his tracks.

“You okay?” Doctor Sung asked.

“Yeah…it’s just… can I get a moment alone?” Strive asked.

Doctor Sung looked up to Commander Meouch who gave him a quick nod.

“Sure thing. Just no going and doing crazy stunts without us, okay?” Doctor Sung said.

Strive gave a tight smile and a nod to Doctor Sung and watched as the brigade turned and continued down the hall. Then Strive turned and walked the other way. He had purpose in his steps as he took a route that he had been told about, but never taken before. He made his way to the elevator and soon he was knocking on the Major’s door. He heard a faint ‘come in’ and he made his way inside.

“Strive,” said the Major, “Well this is a surprise. I didn’t expect to see you up and about just yet. What brings you here?”

“Major, I’m sorry to disturb you but I have a request to make,” Strive said.

“Oh? And what’s that?” the Major asked.

“I’d like to speak with Commander Greyson,” Strive said.


	52. The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive asks for Greyson's help

Strive walked briskly down the hallways, following the directions the Major had given him. He clutched the object the Major had given him in both his hands, far tighter then was necessary. It had taken a while to get the Major to agree with him. In fact, he suspected that if anyone else had suggested such a thing to him he never would have agreed.

Strive had had to go down several levels to get to Command’s brig. Doctor Sung had once told him that the cells were so far down because, back in its cruise ship days, the crew wanted to keep any offenders as far away from passengers so as not to disturb the ‘atmosphere,’ whatever that meant. Doctor Sung had also told him that that was why the brig was so small. In fact, it only had three holding cells. Apparently, it was rare for any sort of criminal to make their way onboard the cruise ship in the first place due to truly extensive background checks. ‘Only the top tier ever made it onboard here,’ Doctor Sung had said, implying that he had been on Command before it was turned into a military ship. Now that he thought about it, Strive wondered if he had meant he had made it onboard legally or illegally.

That line of thought was interrupted as Strive reached the entrance to the brig. Two guards stood at the entrance, their heads covered by grey helmets and their eyes covered by black visors. Strive paused for a moment but one of the guards gave him a small nod. The Major had already told them to expect him. Strive walked up to the door, paused, and then turned to one of the guards.

“Would you mind holding onto this for me?” Strive asked as he held out the object the Major had given to him.

The guard took a moment to exam it and then took it from him.

“Just give a shout if you need us,” the guard said.

“Thank you…umm…” Strive said.

“Jensen,” Jensen said.

“Thank you, Jensen,” Strive said with a small smile.

Strive felt his heart pounding as he stepped inside the brig and heard the soft swoosh as the doors slid shut behind him. He hadn’t told the other brigade members about this because he knew they would try and talk him out of this, convince him that they would be fine without her. And, although he knew this was the right thing to do, he sorely missed their presence by his side.

As Strive looked up he saw the three holding cells, each one similar in size and shape to the ones he and Sung had been stuck in not that long ago. Greyson was sitting in the center cell, a chair having been provided for her and her hands secured in a pair of cuffs that rested on her lap. Strive realized, with a start, that she had been stripped of her helmet. Her black curls hung free and limp down her back. Dark circles gathered underneath her eyes and a pale scar arced its way down her forehead, as if pointing out her dark brown eyes that were trained on Strive.

“Strive,” Greyson said slowly, “I’ll admit, you’re the last person I expected to see down here.”

“I…wasn’t sure about coming down here either,” Strive admitted.

“Well, I’m curious then. What brings you down here then? Come to let me know just how much I’ve hurt you? How much I deserve whatever punishment I’m given?” Greyson asked.

“No!” Strive cried, pausing for a moment to try and calm his shaking hands and pounding heart, “I mean yes, you hurt me. You hurt Sung. And…I still get confused and scared every time I think about you and what you did…but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here to ask for your help.”

Greyson said nothing but arched one eyebrow slightly.

“We’ve got a shot now, a shot at ending all of this,” Strive continued, “But if we fail… she’s attacking my people. My planet. If she takes them then I’m never getting them back. And Doctor Sung… he said that you’re the best of the best at strategy. I don’t think we can afford to go into this without you.”

The silence between them stretched for far longer then was comfortable before Greyson broke the silence.

“I never expected Sung to be the one to give me such praise,” Greyson said softly.

“Is it true?” Strive asked.

“It’s certainly the excuse they gave me when they pulled me from the brigade. And it is true that I’m the only one that has gone head to head with Meouch on matters of strategy,” Greyson said, “although whether that is matter of skill or stubbornness remains to be seen.”

“Right…will you help then?” Strive asked.

“Before you get to excited, why don’t you tell me what the situation is first,” Greyson said.

“Oh, right…so after the Shard ship attacked…” Strive started.

“It’s a planet,” Greyson said.

“Yes,” Strive said.

“This whole time…we’ve been fighting a planet,” Greyson said.

“Yes,” Strive said.

“We need to defeat a planet,” Greyson said.

“No, we just need to break that pyramid…ship… thing,” Strive corrected.

“Which will free the stars,” Greyson said.

“Yes,” Strive said.

“Which are actually…souls,” Greyson said.

“Correct,” Strive said.

“And without the…souls…the planet will just…die?” Greyson said.

“Yes,” Strive said.

Greyson gave a long sigh and put her head in her hands.

“Are you okay?” Strive asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. It’s just so much bigger than I imagined. I thought we’d be fighting an army of some sort. Not…this,” Greyson said.

“Can…can you help?” Strive asked.

“Despite my surprise, I do believe I can,” Greyson replied.

“Will you?” Strive asked before hurriedly adding, “I already talked to the Major. He said that if you help, he can try to at least lighten your sentence.”

Greyson looked up at Strive, a bemused expression on her face.

“The Major really thought he’d need to bribe me into helping you?” Greyson said.

“So, you’ll do it?!” Strive cried.

“Of course. I made an oath to see this mission through, till the very end,” Greyson said.

“Thank you!” Strive said as he darted back towards the door but stopping before he trigger the sensor, “Uh, the Major said you’d need to wear a tracker cuff the whole time.”

“I expected as much,” Greyson said.

“I’ll go get it,” Strive said with a sheepish smile.

A minute later, Strive and Greyson exited the brig. They were about to head down the hallway when they heard someone clear their throat. They turned and saw Jensen holding Greyson’s helmet. Gingerly, Greyson took the helmet from and slid it back over her head. Strive gave her a small smile and, before she could protest, took her hand and lead her back down the hallway.

Commander Meouch growled in frustration as he looked at the board in front of him. It was projecting an image of the mysterious pyramid and the Shard ships that were bound to be guarding it. How were they supposed to fight this thing? No one had so much as seen the pyramid since it first took the stars. Judging from the expressions of the rest of the brigade, they were just as stumped as he was. He heard the doors to the Strategy room open and turned, expecting to see Strive but staring in shock when he saw Greyson come in behind him.

“Strive,” Doctor Sung said slowly.

“I asked her for help,” Strive said quickly.

“Help?” Commander Meouch added with a slight growl in his tone.

“We need her,” Strive said as he stepped forward, his eyes defiant.

“So, I suppose you have some genius plan to bust this thing wide open?” Doctor Sung said sarcastically.

“Yes, in fact I do,” Greyson said as she stepped past Strive, breezed past Commander Meouch and approached the board, “I assume you all remember that the only attack we’ve seen so far that completely immobilized a Shard ship is the one from Strive’s ship, correct?”

“That’s right,” Lord Phobos said.

“And Strive tells me that this…Malice…experiment with the stars energy before launching her full-scale attack. So that makes it logical to assume that this pyramid is at least partly made of the same material as the Shards,” Greyson explained.

“The husks,” Strive said with a shiver.

“Wait…are you going to suggest we let Strive ram the pyramid?” Doctor Sung asked.

“No, I’m going to suggest you all ram the pyramid,” Greyson said.

“Why?” Commander Meouch asked.

“Your ships are the same as Strives, especially now that this Spriggan has left. While you might not have the same…connection as Strive it bears to reason that, with your assistance, you just might be able to break through,” Greyson said as she made a T motion with her hands to demonstrate, “Do you follow, Commander?”

“Yes,” Commander Meouch said slowly, “I do, Commander.”

A silence stretched between them that was suddenly broken by the screeching of alarms. The lights in the room suddenly turned an ominous red to match.

“What’s going on?” Strive yelled.

“We set up sensors around Moebius to alert us when the Shards arrived!” Doctor Sung yelled, “They’ve been triggered!”

“It’s too soon!” Commander Meouch roared.

“It doesn’t matter!” Commander Greyson yelled, “Go! It’s time to fulfil this destiny of yours!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. Made it back to the music video


	53. The Final Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Brigade faces off against the pyramid and the remain Shard ships.

Strive’s heart was pounding as they raced through the hallways of Command, their way only lit by the eerie red emergency lights. It seemed like no time at all before they reached the hanger, the docking crew parting before them as they raced for their ships. Haave settled in his seat and raised a hand to Space Ninja Brian who watched from his own ship. Lord Phobos jerked back slightly as his seat slid forward and into position. One by one, down the line, their ships engines roared to life, streams of colorful flames streaming out behind them. Doctor Sung slid forward his power gauge, Haave readied his arms, Commander Meouch’s golden half visor flickered to life and both Lord Phobos and Space Ninja Brian leaned forward in anticipation.

“On your mark kid,” Commander Meouch’s voice echoed over the comms.

Strive startled for only a moment before gritting his teeth and launching his ship out of the hanger doors. It was no time at all before the pyramid filled their windshields. Strive could see what he hadn’t before when the pyramid had first arrived to take the stars, the glint of a green energy shield surrounding the pyramid, and the scores of Shard ships guarding it.

They wasted no time, heading straight for the pyramid. The Shard ships straightened, responding to their presence, and immediately began firing their green energy beams. Strive was barely aware he was screaming as he maneuvered between two Shard ships, thrusting his hands forward at the last second causing his to shoot forward and the Shard ships to fire on each other. He was only just aware of Haave’s ship flying in behind him, missiles streaming out of his ship, leaving behind blue trails of smoke. Of Commander Meouch and Doctor Sung pushing their ships to the limit to keep up with him. All that mattered was the pyramid. 

Strive pushed with everything he had, slamming his ship point first into the pyramid’s shields, and the brigade fell in line beside him. Strive could feel his heart hammering inside his chest. Something was wrong. This was taking too long. Something was missing.

Strive felt his ship lurch as the Shard’s lazer beam hit it. He had to turn away from the blinding light as his ship’s wing exploded. He grit his teeth in pain as the heat traveled through the hull and burned his arm.

“Strive!” the entire brigade screamed as they saw his ship drop away from the shield.

Strive looked around frantically as the screens showing his teammates panicked faces all shorted out. Slowly, his entire windshield began fading to black. First his teammates ships disappeared from beside him. Then the stars, those brave trapped stars that were still shining from inside the pyramid, were swallowed up, one by one, by the blackness until all that was left was Strive’s own reflection that was reaching for that final star.

Strive felt the tears welling up in his eyes as he slumped backwards into a chair that rose up to meet him. His entire body ached from the head and he could feel the cut that had opened up on his cheek still dripping blood. He had failed. How could he have failed? He’d done everything exactly like before, when he’d rescued Lord Phobos. What had gone wrong? Strive wondered this as his consciousness slipped into blackness.

A memory swam to the surface of his unconscious mind. At least he thought it was a memory, he wasn’t quite sure. He was so small, charging ahead with his arms out to both sides. He remembered doing that when he was little. He’d used to pretend he was soaring out among the stars.

“Strive!” a voice called.

That voice, it sounded familiar. Strive looked up, his eyes shining with astonishment. It was a bright blue star, shining above him.

“Strive, did we ever tell you why we shine so brightly?” the star asked.

Strive grinned in excitement, the star was talking just for him!

“It’s because we love you Strive. We love this entire universe and everything in it. And so, we burn for it. All of our love and passion, our anger and frustrations, we burn it to light up the darkness. And that light is a force stronger than anything else this universe has to offer,” the star said as it winked downwards into his tiny, outstretched hand, “It’s time to wake up Strive. It’s your turn to burn.”

The controls of Strives ship blazed back to life as Strive clenched his hand. He was barely aware of his body rising, he could only feel the newfound heat emanating from his core. With a single gesture he propelled his ship forward into the shield and it cracked like glass before him.

Doctor Sung’s jaw dropped at the sight of Strive’s revitalized ship ramming into the shield, but he later swore that it hit the floor when he saw the shield splinter and crack. But he wasted no time in punching up the power on his own ship and ramming the shield once more.

Strive felt the force of the rest of the brigade ships joining his as the pushed against the shield. He swore he felt their willpower joining his as they practically ordered the shield to break. Finally, their ships lurched forward as the shield shattered before them, green giving way to black as their ships charged for the pyramid. Strive gasped in astonishment as, just before they entered the pyramid, he caught sight of his own reflection in the black surface. His hair was practically shining with a brilliant white light and it floated, gently, up towards the ceiling of the ship. And his eyes. His eyes were burning with an orange fire he had never seen before. But there was no time to dwell on any of this as his ship dove, headfirst, into the pyramid.

There was no resistance. It was almost as if the pyramid had swallowed them whole. They were surrounded by a strange blackness that seemed to move and swirl around them as they pressed forward. Strive chanced a glance backwards but could see no sign of where they had entered.

“Doc-tor,” Haave’s voice echoed over the speaker as the energy levels in his ship, and in his own body, began to spike rapidly and small bolts of energy arced from his controls.

“I can feel it too,” Lord Phobos said as his controls began to vibrate rapidly.

Space Ninja Brian didn’t reply but anyone who would have cared to look would have seen the sweat dripping down his face. Commander Meouch could only growl in alarm as he felt the energy traveling up his fur and into his mane. He could have sworn he even saw it traveling from whisker to whisker.

“There’s something up ahead!” Doctor Sung cried as he saw the black giving way to white.

“NOW!!” Strive screamed as the light surrounded the brigade.

All of Command held their breath as they watched feed from the sensor drones they had set up around Moebius. They had watched the brigade enter the pyramid. They could even still see the contrails from where their ships had entered. But they still hadn’t returned. Then it exploded. Command cheered as a great yellow light erupted from the pyramid and six lights, one red, one orange, one yellow, one green, one blue and one purple raced away from the pyramid. The blast raced outwards, annihilating all of the Shard ships in its wake.

Strive couldn’t stop grinning as the lights raced away from the pyramid. The stars flew past them and he could hear their cheers and whoops of excitement as they flew by, celebrating their regained freedom. They were almost loud enough to drown out his teammate’s celebration.

“We did it!” Commander Meouch yelled as he pumped his fist in the air.

“It was a close one,” Doctor Sung said with a barely contained grin.

Strive didn’t make a sound. He couldn’t. He was too filled with joy and glee as he sped through the newly shining sky, his arms spread wide, just as he had dreamed of doing as a child.

And, many miles below, on the surface of Moebias. Strive’s father looked up at the shining night sky that was currently accented by the light trails of six brightly shining ships. A tear dripped down his face as he heard the stars chatter above him that it was Strive, his Strive, that had returned them home. He almost didn’t notice as the cores of the Moebians around him flickered back to life as their hearts surged with hope once more.


	54. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strive returns home.

“And they have the room called an observatory, where the roof slides back and you can see the stars all around you,” Strive said.

Strive was back where he had started, up on the roof of his house. But his time he was not alone. His father sat beside him, his eyes twinkling in amusement as Strive described the ship he had called home for the past few months.

“Is that so?” his father asked, “Well if they thought to build a room like that then someone out there must appreciate the stars just as much as we do.”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Strive teased.

His father laughed and drew him in closer. A quiet moment hung in the air between them.

“You’re going to leave again, aren’t you,” his father said.

“The brigade,” Strive said quietly, “they’re going to stay together. They want to start a humanitarian mission, help as many people as they can. The major said he’s even gotten approval to build a real base for us. Doctor Sung even thinks we can expand the brigade! If we find people who want join, of course.”

“I’m sure you’ll find plenty. I can’t imagine there’s many out there who can resist my son’s adorable smile when he asks them to join,” his father said.

Strive looked down, trying to hide his rising blush.

“Just promise me you’ll come visit? Who knows, some of our own people might be ready to join you out there, next time you return,” his father asked.

“Of course!” Strive said, his head jerking upwards to meet his father’s eyes.

“Good. Now, I don’t suppose the brigade would mind waiting just one more night for their young hero to return to them?” his father asked.

“No,” Strive sighed as he curled into his father’s side, “I don’t think they’d mind waiting, just one more night.”

A galaxy away, Malice screamed. She screamed her love. Her pain. Her joys. Her fears. Her trust. Her betrayals. She screamed for anyone who dared to listen. She screamed as her core twisted and tore itself apart. She screamed as the ghosts of her people escaped her grasp and fled into the surround space. She screamed and raged but nothing changed. But she would not end. She refused to end. Even as her body ground itself into dust and scattered into space.

And each fleck of dust her hatred.

Each fleck of dust held her rage.

Each fleck of dust held her final thought.

She wanted her revenge.

Against those who loved the stars more then her.

It wouldn’t be enough to destroy the stars.

No.

She wouldn’t stop.

Not until there was nothing left.

Nothing, but the Void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Wow, here we are at the end. That was some ride for me, and I hope it was for you too! Thank you so much for taking this ride with me!
> 
> As you can see, I'm not done with the brigade. Just the music video. We have all of space to explore, I'm not going to just leave it alone! I am going to be taking a bit of a break, I have other fics to finish first, but I hope to see all of you again soon! 
> 
> Until next time!


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